Hypnotherapy For A Fear Of Flying

Hypnotherapy can make flying a joy!

If you experience anxiety or sheer terror every time you fly, then hypnotherapy can help you overcome this terrifying fear. But it might be worth looking a little deeper before you jump to conclusions? Let's presume you decide to seek help to remove this irrational fear experience. The very first thing we need to establish, is, do you actually have a fear of flying? I'll likely ask, how do you know it's a fear of flying? The typical answer is, "well, every time I book a flight or go in an aeroplane, I get this terrible sense of panic or feel very anxious!" Following that, I'll ask a few more questions relating to your perceived fear of flying. And if your answer is also the typical one my next comment will very likely surprise you. Because I say it might not actually be anything to do with flying or even related to aviation come to that! Sounds illogical, right?

Many people have flown lots of times and never had a problem, OK, they may not love it but they often don't hate it either. After all, it's just one of many modes of transportation, it also happens to be one of the safest too! This actually makes the fear of flying rather strange but then, so is travelling at 39,000 feet off the ground! Most people that have flown many times have seldom, if ever, been involved in an air crash or any other type of aviation incident. Mostly the fear just seems to creep upon them, maybe a consequence of a little too much turbulence or something similarly uncomfortable. Generally, the anxiety and fear, seem to get worse, flight by flight.

Sometimes what is happening, is an adaptive form of Pavlovian classical conditioning. This is often a consequence of there being another type of fear conditioning that has contributed to the development of a nascent anxiety disorder. Severe turbulence or any other type of sensory stimuli on the plane you are travelling on can elicit such a response. However, in the presence of an unconditioned fear stimulus (turbulence), which often occurs outside of conscious awareness, the stage is set for the development of stimulus pairing. This is where one stimulus pairs with another and one takes on all the attributes of the other! The presentation of these conflicting stimuli can dupe us into believing we have a fear of flying, logic and common sense then join the dots. When you consider the number of people who fly every day, aviophobia truly is a rare event. But, if it's happening to you, how rare it is is totally irrelevant!

Over the years I have seen many clients where the fear of flying has nothing directly to do with flying, and, have successfully helped them overcome their non-aviophobic response to flying. Not unsurprisingly, during the hypnosis, there is no mention of anything related to aeroplanes, take-offs, landings, turbulence, being locked in a tin can (cleithrophobia) or lots of people (anthropophobia)! However, if yours is a genuine fear of flying, with provable or observable links to aviation, then please read on.

As I said, the fear of flying (aviophobia) is one of the most irrational phobias or fears there is. But the foundation for it is both real and logical because aeroplanes do crash. There are many reasons for crashes too, e.g. technical problems, weather, pilot error and of course terrorism. For these very reasons it is both impractical and irrational to totally remove all fear because it's a natural and necessary part of our defence system. However, when you think of it, there's no part of life that doesn't contain its risks. If you were involved in a car accident, chances are it wouldn't put you off driving; even if you were only a passenger! These days we are acutely aware that terrorists are totally indiscriminate in when, where and why they strike and that is quite a frightening prospect. It's because of that risk, that there's more effort to reduce threats to aviation from terrorism than preventing idiot drivers or radicalized lone wolf assassins! Logically speaking we should feel safer flying than any other form of transport but that's logic and fear is based on emotion, not logic and therein lays the rub!