It can be so limiting to your life when you are scared of driving, whether that’s a fear of getting back behind the wheel after a difficult experience or a long-held difficulty in dealing with certain types of roads or situations. Driving needn’t create uncomfortable anxiety! You can learn to tackle driving anxiety using some simple tools and strategies.

Yes, of course, you need to be vigilant to what other road users are doing and maintain awareness of how things might change. But getting behind the wheel shouldn’t cause all the alarm bells to start ringing in your brain at the danger! With a few sessions of hypnotherapy you can once again enjoy the freedom for you and your family of being able to drive without crippling fear.

Some of the people I have helped had avoided driving for many years but, with a change of circumstances –  a new job in one case, deteriorating health in a relative for another, and a driving ban for the partner of a third case – once again they needed to tackle the fear and get behind the wheel.

Hypnotherapy is very effective in helping people to train themselves to relax and to use those feelings of relaxation and transfer them into an anxiety-provoking situation. When our brain is experiencing feelings of relaxation whilst in that challenging situation it causes the brain to reassess, and to scale back on the emergency response that it usually produces. Learning new coping skills such as these can be very effective.

Hypnosis can also build back a person’s confidence in themselves and their ability to cope with situations using mental rehearsal and practising embedding new, more helpful thinking patterns. We don’t need to continue to follow that well-worn path of negative thinking about our ability to drive, we can carve out a new way of responding. 

Top tips:

· Start gently by learning relaxation techniques

· Learn to use breathing techniques to keep calm and focused

· Go and sit behind the wheel while the car is stationary in a safe place – just breathe!

· Use hypnosis to mentally rehearse feeling confident enough to drive

· Practise replacing your negative thoughts with new, helpful thinking

· Start gently, challenge yourself to tackle it step by step

· Find a kind and gently driving instructor to support you!