Treatment of flight phobia (aviophobia) through the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) method: a case report

Abstract

Treatment of flight phobia (aviophobia) through the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) method: a case report All phobic individuals, when faced with the phobic situation, feel obvious, severe, persistent and irrational fear. The presence of traumatic experiences are not necessary in the etiology of phobias. Even though there are many patients with no traumatic experiences in the history, if there is a detectable traumatic event in the history, EMDR therapy seems to be a good option for the treatment.. Also, although there is not a traumatic event at the beginning, after the formation of phobic fear, every encounter to phobic object, even the idea, can be seen as traumatic event. This support that EMDR may be an option for the treatment of phobias. In this article, EMDR treatment of a case who experienced a jolt of the aircraft during a flight because of a turbulence and who then developed flight anxiety and could not get on a plane is presented. Within the framework of the protocol defined by Shapiro, three EMDR sessions, each session lasting about an hour, were applied as treatment. And it was observed that phobic fear and avoidance of the patient were disappeared. As a result, EMDR may be considered as a treatment option in several clinical conditions thought to occur after the experiences of the past conditioning.