Fear of Flying
Aside from my various areas of mental health specialty, I am the creator of an internationally recognized approach to helping people overcome fear of flying. This is based on addressing the most relevant psychological and emotional factors that tend to reinforce fear of flying for people. As fear of flying has different origins for everyone, the way we work is personalized to your own needs and experience, and is designed for you whether you are unable to fly at all, or if you still do fly, but with significant anxiety.
You’ve likely read and heard about how safe flying is supposed to be, yet this rational reassurance doesn’t do much, if anything at all, to help your anxiety. You may know flying is safe, but still feel emotionally that air travel is fundamentally unsafe and that you are in sincere, tremendous danger any time you have to fly.
There are a number of reasons that your body and emotions may run away with you, leaving you feeling scared and in danger, even when your mind has a lot of information. Fear of flying and flying anxiety comes from the back of the brain — the underlying emotions. While the front of the brain rational side can sometimes be helpful, it’s very hard for them to align when the emotions that feed flying phobia aren’t addressed.
Our Work Together
In our work together, we will help you to feel safe in spite of certain unknowns and vulnerabilities, similarly to how you experience normalized unknowns and risks in your daily life (such as driving, for example). We focus on helping the mind and body normalize the flying experience as a whole so you can travel more comfortably, emotionally trusting that you are safe.
Another reason people tend to prefer this approach is because the way we work on this issue tends to have a positive impact on dealing with other daily life issues outside of flying as well. While what we’re doing is geared towards fear of flying, we approach this issue emotionally, which often helps with anxiety and other emotions that may show up in life for you as a whole. In addition to fear of flying, I have specialties in various other life areas (such as general anxieties, relationships, depression, trauma, migraines, and more). Therefore, when emotional and life struggles come up that could use our attention as well, there is room for these conversations to become integrated into our work here.
I have seen many people over time who once felt tortured and limited by flying anxiety — similarly to how you may feel now. It is possible to find relief and to travel with a newfound sense of empowerment, liberation, and freedom.
More about Fear of Flying…
Fear of Flying: Normalizing the Airplane Experience
If you haven't read my previous posts about approach I developed a while back for helping people overcome fear of flying, you can find them on my blog on my website. There are four main [read more]
Fear of Flying: Why is Turbulence So Scary?
I have helped people overcome fear of flying for many years with the personalized approach I developed in my practice. There are a few phases of flying that tend to cause the most anxiety for [read more]
How Trust Issues Fuel Fear of Flying
When I work with people in therapy on overcoming their fear of flying, there is almost a collective wish that it would always be a quick concrete solution. Of course, that's normal. Who doesn't want [read more]