Thursday 11 June 2009

Come Fly With Me


Radio 4's seven o'clock evening news had just finished, the Archers were starting their daily story of very unusual country folk, and - onions sliced, lamb diced, and garlic crushed - I was happily preparing supper when the 'phone rang.

It was a young woman, and she was clearly very, very, anxious.  She wanted to know what experience I had of dealing with fear of flying.  She also wanted to come round in about in ten minutes.

“Tonight!", I said. "Can’t we make an appointment for sometime tomorrow?” 

There was a short pause, and then she explained that she - along with a vast assortment of relatives - was supposed to be flying to Eygpt the following morning. And that she was terrified at the prospect. And she was almost in tears.

What can you do?  I gave her directions about parking, shoved the casserole in the oven, and re-opened the office.

It was a longish session and well time for the ten o’clock news before I got back to eating my rather late supper - and hopefully it will be the only sesssion I ever do wearing a striped apron and smelling of onions - but as it turned out,  it worked really well.  A couple of weeks later, my late evening client 'phoned to say “Thank you”.  She had suffered no anxiety on her flight to Egypt or her flight back home, and had enjoyed a really super holiday.
  
Fear of flying is a very common condition. Some studies suggest that one in five people are afraid of, or nervous about, flying. So if you are one of them - you aren't alone.  Obviously, assuring nervous would-be airline passengers that they are twenty-nine times more likely to be in a car accident than a 'plane crash isn't going to help anybody very much. Fortunately, hypnosis has proved to be a very fast and highly effective means of helping those people to overcome their fear of flying.

And I don't mind a really well cooked casserole...

Bill