Fear of flying phobia support

Tamsin Denbigh
Dec 18, 2025
4 min read

Why do I have a fear of flying?

Fear of flying - also known as aerophobia or aviophobia - can be caused by many factors.

For some it is a learnt fear as a child from someone important, such as a parent. If the parent demonstrates a fear response, then the child mimics this response. Overtime, it becomes a person's natural response to the stimulus or threat.

For others it can be due to a traumatic event that occurred during a flight, such as flying in a storm or a passenger getting ill or anxious during a flight.

For some there is no known trigger, or they can’t recall this trigger. It just starts at some point in their life and then can get progressively worse.

Some people suggest that fears may increase at significant points in a person’s life, after having children, for instance. It is thought this may be driven by survival instincts.

Most people’s way of tackling a fear or phobia is avoidance. That can work well for a time but what if you have to fly, or fear of flying is stopping you booking travels with your family or friends? Your family or friends may try and reassure you but whilst they are trying to be helpful, it is hard for them to understand that this is a phobia which may need specific therapy to overcome.

Can I get over my fear of flying?

I'm pleased to say that when people come to me for help with fear of flying, I'm able to say that I can help them to get on the plane and go to their destination. I caveat this with the fact that they may never love to fly, but I can help them to cope better and be calmer on the lead up and day of travel.

I've celebrated many successes with clients. I often receive a message or a photo when the client is up in the air or arrived at their destination to let me know how pleased they are with how they have managed the event. They are so relieved!

A person sitting on a plane looking down the aisle

First steps in fear of flying support

The first thing I do when someone contacts me is to establish what is going on in someone's life. Is there anxiety specific to fear of flying or is other stuff going on right now which is making the thought of flying harder? If there is other stuff going on that is making someone anxious, then we will look first at bringing down this general anxiety before focusing on the specific phobia.

I will also ask when your flight is so that we can plan our sessions around your schedule.

Hypnotherapy for fear of flying

If we are focusing solely on your flying phobia then we will need four sessions, usually in the four weeks running up to your flight. If the trip is more urgent, or there is no flight booked but you want to book it, we will review this schedule and look at how to make it best work for you.

During our four sessions I will use some or all of the below therapeutic techniques:

Rewind Trauma

If you have had a bad experience of flying, I will use the Rewind trauma technique to help process that memory. By processing the bad memory, you will have more cognitive control over it, meaning that it will trigger you less.

Reframe

I will ask you to create a narrative of how you would like to be when you fly. This narrative may start from being at home packing to your time in the airport, boarding the plane, taking off and landing. We will then use hypnosis to guide you into deep relaxation where you will hear your Reframe of how you want the flight to go. As our subconscious brain cannot tell the difference between imagination and reality, this narrative will help the brain to think that you've already done the flight well, so creating new thoughts and behaviours. The Reframe will be recorded so you can listen to it as many times as you can in your personal time before the day of the flight.

Breathing exercises and grounding techniques

You will learn breathing exercises and grounding techniques to help on the day of travel, ranging from box breathing to 5-4-3-2-1. These are useful exercises for stabilising your nervous system when you start to get anxious.

Distraction

We will also look at what distraction techniques you can use to make the experience better. Some people find ear plugs work well, or recording their favourite comedy playlist. These distraction techniques will be personal to you.

Why hypnotherapy is different from exposure therapy?

The key is you are relaxed during hypnotherapy and so are not at risk of making the fear or phobia worse. Plus the therapy experience is not traumatising in itself.