Turbulence is a huge trigger for many anxious flyers, but even the most acute turbulence fears can be overcome, says Nathan Feiles, LCSW-R. Nathan is a qualified integrative psychotherapist in private practice in New York City and he also provides private coaching for people with fear of flying all over the world.
In this incredible in-depth interview we spoke to Nathan about the causes of turbulence anxiety and potential treatments. He provides expert insights informed by his professional training and experience as a therapist.
Nathan specialises in treating anxiety, including fear of flying. You can learn more about Nathan Feiles and his specialities here.
If you’re worried about turbulence anxiety and the life-changing impact professional treatment can have, read on.
Nathan, why do anxious travellers find turbulence to be such a trigger for anxiety?
Turbulence is a significant trigger for many fearful flyers, but believe it or not, not all. There are also fearful flyers who don’t have an issue with turbulence, as much as other areas of flying.
Turbulence can trigger varied experiences for different people – it’s not one and the same across the board.
For some, turbulence can be a fear of losing control. When the flight is smooth, it feels like everything is going as it should be, and the moment the bumps start, it can feel alarming, like something is about to go wrong, or is going wrong. It becomes a quick split between everything being good and everything being bad or dangerous, and people can suddenly feel highly vulnerable and scared of the catastrophe.
It can be very difficult for people in this triggered state to understand that these bumps are part of flying – like waves on water or bumps on a road. This can be especially triggering for people who have been through trauma of various types, or have grown up in chaotic home environments, possibly with abuse involved (though not always the case).
Being afraid of turbulence doesn’t always mean you were in a chaotic home or abused, but it can often be harder for people with this in their history.
When things are smooth, everything is okay, and when things are bumpy, everything feels fragile. There’s a lot more to say in this, for another time. I’ll also throw in here that turbulence can be a triggering physiological experience for many, as well.
The feeling in the body of the movement, the drops, the bumps in different directions. The body can feel this as a threat, or a discomfort like they’re about to fall, or that just the sensation is unpleasant (stomach dropping, etc). It can feel like you are losing control of your body.
This can sometimes mimic physiological reactions to fear, and the discomfort can actually become conflated with the fear process.
Can you explain why treating turbulence anxiety is such a challenge?
Treating turbulence anxiety (and fear of flying in general) has historically been a challenge because many of the people who attempt to treat it don’t fully understand the depths of these fears, and what really is causing it.
Many therapists treat it like it’s any other phobia and that if you just do certain exercises (breathing, self-talk, exposure, etc.) you’ll control or desensitize the anxiety away – which doesn’t tend to work as well as people hope.
There are also many faux therapists out there who actually have little to no training or experience in working with people who struggle with anxiety and fear who create videos and apps because they’ve taken an interest in the topic, or had their own struggle with flying, but don’t really know how to work with these issues on a deeper psychological and emotional level in other people.
Pilots often fall into this same trap as well. (Remember, pilots, while well intentioned, are experts in aviation and flying, but not in mental health and emotional processes).
Pilots tend to believe that if you teach someone enough information about why turbulence (or flying) is safe, that it will make them feel safe.
The problem is, rational thought and emotional experience aren’t aligned well with fear of flying. People may feel momentarily better with information that explains things, and then they go to fly and they’re still as anxious as before.
What people don’t understand about treating fear of flying and turbulence is that it often stems from things that aren’t even about flying or turbulence that come together and funnel into the flying environment (I have worked with people on fear of flying where only maybe 5-10% of the conversations were directly about flying, and they’re shocked when they feel better about flying even though flying itself was such a small part of the actual conversation).
Fear of flying, and turbulence, is often how certain issues and emotional processes (different for everyone) manifest.
And turbulence tends to push on these underlying issues with a lot of pressure.
This is fascinating. In your experience, can turbulence anxiety be cured, or will some people just have to live with it?
Turbulence anxiety can be overcome.
I have helped and seen many people overcome fear of turbulence and fear of flying. So I know it’s something people have the ability to overcome.
What would be your recommendation to someone who experiences fear of flying but self-help approaches haven’t worked?
Overcoming fear of turbulence and flying doesn’t generally see positive results from typical cognitive-behavioral therapies or pilot coaching videos. I know this because people often come to me after trying all sorts of therapies and videos, and airline courses, and apps.
Overcoming fears of turbulence and flying is much more about shifting not only the emotional experience of flying, but also how you interact with flying and turbulence. So it’s not just about how to “feel better”, it’s also about how to actually shift the experience to sit with it differently, and to experience it in the mind and body as something that’s normal and routine.
When people approach fear of flying just trying to “feel better”, it’s already an uphill battle. This is one of the reasons self-help is very difficult with this issue. It’s hard for people to work themselves to a place that may be new or uncharted for them.
How can people recognise when they need professional help?
Expanding on the above, if you’ve been doing self-help approaches and they haven’t worked well to this point, then there’s a good chance they probably won’t.
It’s probably time to have some outside help.
Self-help approaches can be helpful for certain things, but overall, when people are afraid of flying and turbulence, it’s hard for them to access on their own what they need in order to internally see and feel past where they are now.
They often end up trying to control the emotions, or mute them with certain exercises, and that actually tends to makes it worse. Trying to control (or shut out) anxiety often increases it.
On a separate –but related – topic, this is also why AI therapies don’t work. You can’t be “told how” to create a new emotional experience, you have to be in the process of doing it with someone who knows how to interact with various kinds of emotions.
Can you talk us through your approach to dealing with fear of flying and turbulence anxiety?
The way I help people overcome fear of flying is a combination of different things all working together.
On the surface, it feels in many ways like therapy (conversations will go into life outside of flying as well), though it also incorporates some other elements, such as normalization of flying as something routine (and exercises to help internalize this); and it goes into the deeper life areas that tend to block people’s ability to normalize (the deeper work); as well as learning to regulate emotion; and addressing some knowledge about passenger flying. The idea isn’t to never touch the rational piece, it’s more about how to align the rational and emotional so they’re on the same page.
Much of aligning the rational and emotional is done in the “back of the brain” (the deeper life areas), but sometimes you also have to reach the front of the brain, too, to help bring the rational areas into reality more.
The problem is things like pilot videos and discussions about how safe flying is only hits the front of the brain, and CBT tends to block out the work the back of the brain needs to do to really shift someone’s experience of the flying environment.
When it comes to turbulence, reiterating what I already said above, one of the things I focus on is helping people interact with turbulence in a different way, which helps people learn to coexist with it in a different way on the plane. This comes in the form of various conversations and exercises, including techniques I give people to try on the plane.
You’re obviously highly skilled in this area. How can people learn more or work with you?
People can check out my website at www.nathanfeiles.com.
People can also reach out through my website if they wish to work with me. I am a psychotherapist and also provide specialized coaching for a few specific issues, fear of flying being one of my areas of specialty.
I created my personalized approach to this issue after working with people who’ve struggled with anxiety for years and seeing how fear of flying issues were greatly underserved.
I have spent the greater part of two decades working with people on anxiety issues and fear of flying, as well as depression, agoraphobia, and other areas, including trauma, relationship and relational issues, and migraines. My work and years of experience as a mind-body therapist informed my approach to helping people through fear of flying and issues with turbulence.
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This is the latest in our series of Expert Insights. In this series, experts tackle the questions you have, including how CBT can help with fear of flying and turbulence. If you need to understand what’s causing your fear of flying – and ways you can deal with it – check out our Help Desk and download the Calm Flight Toolkit.
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