The SOAR Course has helped me get a part of my life back

Client Background Summary:

• I remember always being a bit uncomfortable with flying, but I usually got through it.
• After I had children I became more fearful about everything, including flying.
• ...I experienced a severe panic attack and really felt that I might never fly again.

Client Review Summary:

• I have been on about 6 flights since doing the SOAR course and each one gets better and better. I am so convinced that it works. I know this because the more I practice SOAR the easier flying gets.
• The SOAR course is fantastic,  Captain Tom is fantastic.  He is really a guru.

Client Review:

I am so grateful to the SOAR program because it has helped me achieve  
goals that I really believed were lost to me.   The SOAR course has helped me get a part of my life back.  Here is my story.  I hope somebody out there will be inspired by it, because as far as flying was concerned I was truly a lost cause.  I am a successful flyer today.  I just got back from a trip from Chicago to California and am now thinking Europe and Hawaii.  I am confident that I can do it with the skills that I have learned in the SOAR course.

I am 37 years old and had flown most of my life to a lot of different places. I remember always being a bit uncomfortable with flying, but I usually got through it. I flew overseas on foreign airlines without too much difficulty. When I was about 21 I had a panic attack while on a family vacation. After that flying became more difficult because I was afraid of having a panic attack. I actually jumped up and tried to run down the aisle to get off the plane once while it was moving! I still continued to fly though.

After I had children I became more fearful about everything, including flying. After one bad flying experience with my then infant daughter on an airplane, I developed an extreme fear of flying. My daughter had screamed on the plane for an hour and 10 minutes. Everyone on the flight clapped when we landed. On the very next flight after that I experienced a severe panic attack and really felt that I might never fly again.

The experience of having a severe panic attack on the airplane was so isolating and terrible that I felt all alone in the world. After that, just the thought of an airplane made me physically sick. I couldn't even think about getting on a plane again. I was truly devastated and at rock bottom. I felt so trapped because I wanted to go places with my husband and kids, but really felt that it was impossible. I made my family drive 20 hours to Florida so we could have a vacation. I remember feeling powerless, ashamed, guilty, and miserable. I felt that I was a capable person. I have a master's degree and three kids, but this was a huge personal failure for me. In desperation, I googled fear of flying and came across the Soar website. I bought the tapes and read the literature.

I watch the DVD's, read the literature, did the exercises and slowly but surely developed enough confidence to book a flight. I have been on about 6 flights since doing the SOAR course and each one gets better and better. I am so convinced that it works. I know this because the more I practice SOAR the easier flying gets. I also highly recommend doing a counseling session with Captain Tom. He really is wonderful. He is compassionate and knowledgeable. He does not judge you and is so helpful.

The things about the SOAR course that helped me the most are the parts about experiencing flying just as it is, not adding to it or taking anything away. I now just sit on the plane and notice things around me and just relax and live in the moment. Captain Tom was so compassionate to me during one of our phone conversations. He in a sense gave me permission to do this and told me that I was OK. It was very powerful. Another helpful thing to me was reading all of the things in the SOAR library and the SOAR literature. Captain Tom wrote a great article about "The Stupid Amygdala" The SOAR exercises really do turn off your fight or flight response if you practice them enough. The reason I know this is because one of the things that I didn't have in my practices caused me a little trouble on one flight. It was amazing how everything that I had practiced worked. I took Captain Tom's advice and wrote that thing down for future practice sessions. I can't say it enough, the course really works. I sit there now waiting for the anxiety to come and it never does.

Another thing that really has helped me is meeting the Captain.  I   always think about how weird it is that the Captain is in charge of me   while I am on that plane and doesn't know anything about me.  So having a little chat with him/her and feeling like I am a person that he/she knows a little bit about is helpful too.

The SOAR course is fantastic,  Captain Tom is fantastic.  He is really a guru.  Read every word he has to say and do the practice sessions and you will fly free.  If I can do it, anyone can.

A SOAR Graduate

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