I'm asked often why I give away my knowledge for free on this blog -
here's why...
You may have noticed if you're a regular visitor
to this blog that I never include Google Ads. Which might strike you as ironic
if you came here by following a Google link or an
ad!
The problem is that if I allowed
Google ads here, I would have no control over what would appear. The ads for
books at left for Amazon.com are all books I have bought and live on my
bookshelf, occasionally pulled down to show patients with the suggestion they
might want to purchase one.
Google Ads
allow whoever wishes to pay to advertise on your site depending on the keywords
you enter into the search field. For me, I don't want to be associated with fear
of flying treatments or materials that make outrageous claims and thus support
them by association. If I have anything to offer here, it is my credibility and
trustworthiness.
Now I'll let you into
a little secret. If you want to locate those sites that sell CDs, DVDs and other
online fear of flying and anxiety treatments, you are more than welcome to spend
your money. For a small percentage of fearful flyers, reading or watching videos
will be sufficient. You'll get doubts and inaccurate assumptions challenged and
hopefully corrected, and that's all you'll need.
Bravo!
Naturally, I see a very small
number of such people who require just a single session to return to being a
good flyer. But guess what? The vast majority of people I see have read many
books, taken many flights over the years, and perhaps seen hypnotherapists,
psychologists, psychiatrists and counsellors. But to little or no
avail.
You see, reading or watching
videos doesn't get to where the action is for many people, and that's not
knowledge about flying. What is needed is the combination of a new understanding
of their own scary physical sensations due to high arousal, together with how
they come to anticipate their presence (high apprehension) and learning ways to
either head them off at the pass knowing triggering situations, or if caught off
guard, what to do to get their feelings back under control, and switch off the
panic button.
This requires more than
reading.
Which is why I'm happy to give
away a lot of my knowledge here knowing that for some people it's very helpful
and reassuring, while for others it points them in the right direction to
receive appropriate assistance. If you're in Victoria (Australia) that might
mean a visit to me, or another nearby psychologist who knows what they're doing.
With respect to specialising in fear of flying, they number less than the
fingers on one hand, here in
Melbourne.
But for most people it needs
more active intervention than merely helping people change their thinking, which
many psychologists offer with Cognitive Behavioural Therapies. For myself, it's
simply insufficient an intervention unless some form of real exposure can be
built in... nowadays that's very difficult, and even I can't any longer get
people onto aircraft at the airport, unless we're actually flying. No more
visits to cabins in the company of airline staff - threats of terrorism has now
ended that, perhaps forever.
Which is
why the use of technologies such as Virtual reality becomes very important. I'll
devotea whole new entry to it, as well as biofeedback when I lay out some of the
things I talked about in Montreal for the Third World Congress on Fear of
Flying. But first I'll get the video of my presentation uploaded so you can see
me in action. This'll take a little while so please be patient. It will be worth
the wait.
Posted: Saturday - July 21, 2007 at 09:58 PM
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