Fear of Flying

"I still can't believe it -
You can't even muster up the fear if you want to"

"Grace" had been a flight attendant but had quit her job eight years ago after having a panic attack on a plane. She then had not flown at all for four years. Finally, she did fly once but says she could only get through it by being severely drugged and sleeping the whole time. Four more years had passed and her fear and dread had kept her from ever flying again. The very idea of possibly going into panic again in that enclosed space with no way out was dreadful to her. And yet she now was approaching a family trip that she wanted to enjoy. It was time for her to face the fear and seek healing for it.

This was a session in which the E.F.T. worked so effectively that we never did any hypnotherapy. One approach with E.F.T. is the "movie technique" in which the client goes through a mental 'movie' of the dreaded event, stopping to tap every time there is emotional intensity. Grace tapped for the "feelings of dread" she would experience just thinking about the trip, the "anticipatory anxiety" of simply being in the waiting area, the "sense of dread and impending doom when I see the plane", the "invisible wall" represented by the gate, "I'm scared to walk through it", etc. After using E.F.T., she could go back and imagine all these preliminary scenes without any emotional intensity. She said, "Now I see myself calmly sitting in the waiting area reading a magazine." However the intensity returned at the thought of really being on the plane. She said she would be thinking, "When they close the door, I'm screwed." So we did more E.F.T. Finally Grace felt quite calm imagining the closed door, being buckled in, the take-off, flight and landing. There was no fear of a panic attack left, and she actually felt that if she experienced any anxiety at all, she would be able to tap (using E.F.T.) to take care of it.

The test, of course, was the real thing. I called Grace several months later. This is the report, in her words:

"The trip went fine. I was relaxed and enjoyed myself and had a great time. Because I used to be a flight attendant, I was up in the galley chatting away. It was all very familiar in a comfortable way, like I had never stopped. I still can't believe it. E.F.T. is a strange phenomenon but amazing. I feel like my whole attitude is different. You can't even muster up the fear if you want to. I was reading, talking to the flight attendants, looking out the window… that's the way it should be. As a former flight attendant, I know how many people on a plane are probably uncomfortable - maybe 20 or 30 on a plane of 100 people. I wish they all knew that they can get this freedom so easily with E.F.T."