Tom Bunn
Airline Captain
Licensed Therapist
President and Founder of SOAR, Inc.
SOAR
The program has been helping people overcome fear of flying since 1982. The unmatched success is based on a two-step process. First, they teach clients how flying works, why it is safe, and the psychology of aeroanxiety. Then one-to-one counseling establishes automatic control of feelings for when clients are flying.
About
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, the method most therapists are trained in to treat anxiety and phobias, may not be helpful for fear of flying. It can't help people who are not highly introspective. It doesn’t work for people whose feelings arise too rapidly for cognitive tools to keep up.
Fortunately, there is a way to control feelings that does not depend on cognitive techniques. This is done by linking the memory of a moment that produces oxytocin, the hormone produced during moments of attachment and touch, as with an infant and child, to the various things that happen on a flight. Oxytocin shuts down the amygdala, the part of the brain that triggers the release of the hormones that cause fear.
Once the links are established between an oxytocin-producing moment and troublesome moments of flight, high anxiety and panic are automatically controlled. To establish the links, a person follows a step-by-step process of linking sequences shown on video available at www.fearofflying.com
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