With so many people jetting away this Summer, fear of flying can turn the excitement of the holiday into a sickening experience. Daily mail reporter turns to hypnotherapy with excellent results.
A man is flying high after hypnosis cured his fear of planes and is now planning to travel the world.
After vowing to never step foot on a plane again 34-year-old Alex Moldovan has managed to again after just two hypnotherapy sessions.
Alex – who is based in Maynooth, Co Kildare – explained how his phobia of flying came about.
He said: “I used to be fine on planes and even managed a trip from Tokyo years ago, no problem.
“Over the last six or seven years something changed and it just got worse and worse.
“It was a gradual thing but it reached breaking point on a flight from Mexico to Ireland last November.
“We went through massive turbulence on the way back.
“I just had panic attacks and I didn’t eat or sleep or do anything at all for those ten hours.
“Afterwards I said I would never get on a plane again.”
The journey is over 3,000km long and non-stop driving Alex reckons it takes about three or four days.
When friends were planning a trip of a lifetime to Thailand, Alex even started mapping out the driving route but realised he might hit a problem getting through Burma.
Restaurant owner Alex said a friend intervened and booked him in with renowned hypnotist Jason O’Callaghan, who is based at The D4 Hypnotherapy Clinic in Blackrock, Dublin.
Alex admits that he was apprehensive about what to expect from his first session in May.
He said: “I didn’t believe it would work, I’d heard different stories about hypnotherapy but I’d got to the stage that I had no choice but to try it or I’d never travel by plane again.
“I didn’t know what it would be like or what would happen.
“At first he just asked me general questions and I had a funny feeling where I was so relaxed, like I was going to sleep.
“Then he asked me to lie down and just listen.
“There was no major thing but everything he said just clicked.
“He recorded the session and I listened to it every night for half an hour.”
He said: “As soon as I sat on the plane I listened to his recording on my headphones and slept all the way.”
Alex is hoping to travel on a long-haul flight to Argentina later this year and says he is glad hypnotherapy will help to see the world.
He said: “I’m 100% sure it would have held me back, I would have never got on a plane again otherwise.”