Fear of flying is a phobia. Hypnotherapy is very good at aiding the sufferer to overcome this affliction. To explain how and why I have below outlined what a phobia is, how it affects a sufferer, how fear of flying is a phobia and a case study to demonstrate how a sufferer was helped.

We all have fears, but they are not necessarily strong enough to cause us problems. We may not like spiders or snakes and may go out of out way to avoid then, but this is quite different from having a phobia about something. The phobic suffers the most acute fright. It is as powerful as being in fear of losing one’s life. It brings on sweats, palpitations of the heart, nausea, fainting and the feeling that the hairs on the arms or the back of the neck are standing on end.

A phobia is a fear, it is a learned response, you are not born with it. It does not necessarily have to have been caused by a terrible trauma; it can come from something that now seems insignificant but made an impression on you when you were a child, or a reaction ‘caught' from someone significant to you.

Despite flying being very safe, fear of flying is a common phobia. For people with a plane phobia the very thought of flying can be enough to trigger a panic attack. A 25 year old waiter wanted to return to his family in Greece for Christmas. Unfortunately he had developed a severe phobia about flying. This made the trip impossible.

His last flight home had been very turbulent. The woman sitting next to him had become very anxious. It was as if her fears had transmitted themselves to him. Now whenever he thought about flying, he started to sweat and tremble.

All treatments are individually designed because we all have had different experiences and reasons for our problems. His first session was used to explain hypnosis and record a tape designed to relax and visualise a short flight in a calm setting. The next session was used to visualise, under hypnosis the beginning of the actual trip. The therapist also used a therapeutic procedure to reduce the feelings surrounding the turbulent flight. The third session was used to continue as in the second however making the visualisation more vivid and real. The waiter was also taught a powerful relaxation technique. The fourth session was used to record a new tape that had a powerful and positive suggestion that he would be relaxed and calm through all the flight experience, even if there is turbulence.

With hypnotherapy the feelings were re-programmed, associating the experience with calm and relaxation. Thus he could return to celebrate Christmas in the bosom of his family.

The above case study is just one example of the successful application for the fear of flying.