How hypnotherapy helped Sophie overcome her fear of flying and enjoy her flight to a family wedding
All client details have been anonymised to protect confidentiality.
For many people a fear of flying creeps up without warning.
One day you are a confident traveller, the next you cannot think about an airport without your heart racing. That was Sophie.
She couldn't pinpoint exactly when it had started or what had caused it. Perhaps a patch of turbulence on a previous flight had unsettled her more than she realised at the time.
Whatever the origin, her unconscious mind had decided that flying was dangerous, and it was doing everything it could to keep her safe.
The result was a fear that began long before she ever reached the airport. From the moment she started preparing to leave the house, the panic would set in.
The closer she got to the airport the worse it became, the anxiety building with every mile, until by the time she was walking up the steps to board the plane she was in tears.
Sophie had begun avoiding holidays altogether. It was easier than facing the fear. But then a close family member announced they were getting married abroad, and suddenly avoiding flying was no longer an option.
It was at this point that Sophie came to see Lesley at Phoenix Hypnotherapy in Cheltenham.
The journey through four sessions of hypnotherapy
Sophie had always been a confident flyer. That was an important starting point, the fear wasn't something she had always lived with, it was something that had been learned. And what the unconscious mind has learned, it can unlearn.
Working with Lesley, Sophie began to explore the feelings associated with flying and where they were really coming from.
The experiences she had experienced on previous flights had lodged themselves in her unconscious mind as a signal of danger, and her mind had been responding to that signal ever since, even when there was no real threat present.
Session by session, systematically and gently, Sophie began to rebuild her confidence. The feelings that had once overwhelmed her started to lose their grip. What had felt enormous and uncontrollable began to feel manageable, and then something she no longer needed to think about at all.
The outcome
Sophie flew to her family member's wedding, and not only did she get on the plane, she enjoyed the flight.
Somewhere over Europe, she found herself calmly applying her mascara. Something she had never in her wildest dreams imagined she would be able to do on a flight.
Afterwards she said it simply: flying was easy now.
In four sessions of hypnotherapy, Sophie went from a woman in tears on the steps of a plane to someone who could sit back, relax and enjoy the journey.
The fear that had stolen her confidence about flying and her holidays was gone, and in its place was the traveller always been.
Frequently asked questions
Can hypnotherapy help with a fear of flying?
Fear of flying is one of the most common phobias and one that hypnotherapy can work with very effectively. Because the fear is usually rooted in the unconscious mind rather than in conscious rational thought, talking about it or reading statistics about flight safety rarely helps.
Hypnotherapy works directly with the unconscious mind, which is where the fear lives, and that is why many people find it so much more effective than other approaches they may have tried. As with any therapy results vary, and Lesley will always have an honest conversation with you about what you might realistically expect.
What if I don't know what caused my fear of flying?
This is very common. The unconscious mind can take a single unsettling experience, a patch of turbulence, a bumpy landing, even something unrelated to flying altogether, and build a phobia around it that the conscious mind barely remembers.
You don't need to know where the fear came from for hypnotherapy to help. The work happens at a deeper level, and often the origins become clear during the process itself.
If you'd like to understand more about how the unconscious mind creates and holds onto fear, Lesley's blog on boggarts explains it beautifully and in a way that might surprise you.
How many sessions of hypnotherapy will I need for a fear of flying?
Every client is different, but a fear of flying can often be addressed in a relatively small number of sessions. Sophie's fear was resolved in four sessions, which allowed enough time to work through the feelings systematically and rebuild her confidence gradually. Lesley will always discuss a realistic plan with you at your initial consultation.
What if I was once a confident flyer but have lost that confidence?
This is actually a really hopeful situation to be in, because it tells us that the confidence is still there, it has simply been temporarily overridden by something the unconscious mind learned along the way.
Hypnotherapy can help the unconscious mind update that learning, so that the confidence you once had naturally returns.
About Lesley Ford
Lesley Ford is a multi award-winning hypnotherapist based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. With over 20 years of experience helping clients overcome phobias, anxiety, and deeply held fears, Lesley is passionate about helping people reclaim the life and the freedom that fear has taken from them.
Lesley works from her practice at the Isbourne Centre in Cheltenham and also offers online hypnotherapy sessions for those who prefer to work from home.
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