It’s the time of year when many Brits are thinking about jetting off on their summer holidays to far-flung, sunnier climes. However, for an estimated 20% of the population, the thought of boarding a plane fills them with dread and as many as 5% will never fly as a direct result of their fear. Overcome Your Fear of Flying is a major new self-help book, written by two psychologists and a pilot, which provides effective skills and techniques for sufferers to use to help reduce the anxiety commonly associated with flying.

Fear of flying is a surprisingly common problem. For some, flying is unpleasant but manageable, while for others it is an incapacitating fear. There may be serious and potentially disastrous social, financial and professional consequences for anxious flyers – a fear of flying can spoil holidays, damage careers and put relationships under stress. However, it is one of the most treatable psychological problems which almost everyone should be able to overcome.

Co-author of Overcome Your Fear of Flying, Professor Robert Bor, explains, “Our collective experience with people who have a fear of flying shows that, although some books provide useful information about flight safety, they fail to explain the full range of psychological techniques which are known to help overcome fear and anxiety. Helping sufferers to master these techniques is the main focus of the book; it brings together the latest, proven methods for overcoming a fear of flying and helps the reader select and implement the techniques most likely to help them overcome their fear. We also outline the way in which a fear of flying can become a problem in the first place and how different people are affected.”

Interspersed with case studies demonstrating how a fear of flying can manifest itself in various different ways, Overcome Your Fear of Flying approaches treatment of the problem differently from many others. It will not baffle readers with statistics about flight safety, nor will it ‘argue’ with the sufferer’s fears. The book facilitates a tailored approach to self-help, built on a solid foundation of clinical practice and research. The aim is to motivate and empower readers to confront and overcome the different elements that characterise their fear of flying.

Topics in the book include:

• what exactly is fear of flying
• phobia triggered by flying itself, or traumatic experiences in the air
• what reinforces anxiety
• understanding flying, including the effects of flight on the body
• challenging and managing anxious thoughts
• addressing your ‘worst fears’
• tackling unhelpful behaviour such as safety rituals or excessive use of alcohol
• techniques to help you relax
• FAQs – e.g. how safe is flight? What is turbulence?

Overcome Your Fear of Flying is also a helpful companion for people who have previously undergone Fear of Flying courses, such as those offered by some airlines, as they need to keep up-to-date with the latest skills and techniques. Friends, colleagues and relatives who accompany fearful flyers will find the book useful too, as it’ll provide them a useful perspective on the issue.

The book has been written by a highly experienced and uniquely qualified team of experts who are committed to helping people overcome their fear of flying. Collectively, they have over 50 years of experience and have published their research findings on treating fear of flying in many specialist medical and psychological journals and books and are often invited to talk about their work at conferences around the world.

Overcome Your Fear of Flying is published by Sheldon Press on 23 July 2009.  It is availble from Amazon.co.uk – click here or on the image below for more details.

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My Mercedes is Not For Sale, by Jeroen Van Bergeijk is published on 8 August, and Plans2Travel are delighted to say that we have got our hands on a copy to giveaway to one our readers.

Capturing a young journalist’s intrepid endeavour, My Mercedes Is Not for Sale is more than an adventure—it is a rowdy, witty and insightful tale of an innocent abroad, which captures the high-spirited journey of a young journalist and paints a vivid portrait of West Africa through a surprise-filled journey into its thriving car cult.

“Look, there’s my car,” I say, pointing at my Mercedes in the parking lot.
“Where?” a fellow desert traveler asks.
“There, that Mercedes,” I say.
He looks at me, questioning. “You want to drive that through the Sahara?”

It seemed like a great idea to Van Bergeijk to travel and make a quick profit: buy a decrepit car in his native Amsterdam and resell it in the Third World, where a market even for old bangers still thrives. Jeroen’s chariot of choice is a rusted-out 1988 Mercedes 190D with 220,000 kilometres on the clock; his route will take him from Holland through Morocco, across the Sahara, and into some of the least trodden parts of Africa.

Armed with a bar of soap, some duct tape and a pair of women’s tights, he has all the essentials needed to survive thousands of miles from civilization.

My Mercedes Is Not for Sale is a rollicking tale of an innocent abroad. The author finds himself facing a driving challenge akin to the Dakar Rally but encounters obstacles never dreamed of by race-car drivers: active minefields, occasional banditry – mostly by the border guards – and a teenage, chain-smoking desert guide with a fondness for Tupac lyrics. Food and water are scarce, sandstorms are frequent, and then there’s the coup just as he’s so nearly there…

Here is a video trailer to whet your appetite:

You can visit the website of the book at www.mijnmercedes.nl.

To enter the competition all you need is to sign up for our travel newsletter.

If you can’t wait to see if you win, you can purchase the book by clicking on the link below:

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