Matthew's Reviews > Soar: The Breakthrough Treatment For Fear Of Flying

this is the first flying phobia book I've read and also the first phobia book I've read, so I can't say that I'm familiar with the literature. the bulk of this book is dedicated to the author's "strengthening exercise," which has the aviophobe "link flight situations to a moment of empathic connection." so, for example, the person who fears flying would choose a memory of a moment of empathic attunement with a loved one (staring into a loved ones eyes for instance) and then pair this memory with the feared situation (turbulence mid flight or any other event leading up to or during a flight--maybe driving to he airport if that provokes anxiety) and do this exercise multiple times a day in the days before a flight and then during the flight if anxiety symptoms persist. see http://www.fearofflying.com/photos/. the technique derives from stephen porges' research on the social engagement system (SES), which basically says that in the moment of empathic attunement, oxytocin is released, which inhibits the stress/fear/fight-or-flight response. there's also lots of helpful information about how flight works, encouraging facts and perspectives about the safety of flying, and other techniques to try (grounding and relaxation exercises, e.g.) that all work together to create a pretty good comprehensive self-help manual for fear of flying.

that said, other techniques to deal with a fear of flying get relative short shrift in this book. I imagine this whole 'pairing a memory of a moment of empathic attunement with a feared stimulus' thing can useful for reducing anxiety, but what happens when this technique just doesn't work for a particular person? following the work of david burns (see his book 'when panic attacks'), I think it's a better idea for the person who fears flying to review and practice a number of CBT tools or coping skills and develop a toolkit that works for him/her.