The AA [1] says that nearly 40% of drivers have experienced driving anxiety (vehophobia) and I have always had a significant number of clients presenting with it. That's one reason I chose to use it as an example in my book Their Worlds, Your Words, when I was talking about creating effective suggestions and metaphors for hypnotherapy sessions.
I have noticed a definite increase in the number of clients presenting
with driving anxiety recently. Whether it’s motorways, bridges, unfamiliar
places, or all types of driving, varies but I thought it would be worth looking
at some of the ways we, as therapists, can help.
Why do people experience driving anxiety?
- Lack of practice – a factor, I suspect, in the number of
people presenting to my clinic with this issue in 2022, since most of us haven’t
done nearly as much driving as usual during recent lockdowns.
- Being judged or fear of failing – this one mostly applies to
learners with test anxiety, though I have had a client whose anxiety told him that
other drivers were criticising the way he handled his car.
- An accident or near-miss - either experiencing this or anticipating
it, fear of injury or death.
- An unrecognised link to a past event – I had a client whose
driving test fear turned out to be linked to the yellow, high-viz jacket
worn by the examiner. The jacket was triggering negative emotions from a past traumatic event
where emergency services personnel were in attendance, wearing the same colour.
- Fear that something might go wrong – breaking down, getting
lost, being sick, having a panic attack, or arriving late.
- Fear of driving in unfamiliar ways, places or conditions –
going abroad (especially where people drive on the other side of the road), or bad
weather.
- A generalisation of other anxieties such as being away from
home, family or known places, losing control, feeling trapped (for example,
by larger vehicles surrounding the car, driving on the motorway where there are limited exits, or in a one-way system).
Of course, this isn’t a comprehensive list, but it’s a good place to start. Knowing your client is anxious when driving isn’t nearly as useful as knowing exactly what aspects of driving trigger that feeling.
Does the anxiety start with the prospect of the journey, or only when they are in the car? Does the engine have to be running? How exactly do they experience that anxiety? Is it words in their head, images, or physical sensations? All of these?
How does being a driver compare to being a passenger? Do they experience anxiety at any other times?
What would they like to feel when driving? (Relaxed, confident, focussed, something else?) Have they ever felt this way when driving?
It can also be worth checking - especially with learners - that it is a confidence issue and not a competence one. It would be a bad move to give a poor driver unlimited confidence in their own abilities!
So, your first step is a very thorough intake to find all this out.
Coping strategies for fear of driving
As a therapist, you probably have many coping strategies at
your metaphorical fingertips that you can teach those experiencing situation-specific
anxiety. When the specific situation is driving, some of them may not be
suitable because you can’t do them effectively whilst keeping your attention on
the road. Whatever we offer, the client must be able to drive capably
and safely at the same time as using them, so you might have to tweak some of your approaches.
It's impossible to give a complete list, and you may know
others (post them in the comments please!), but I do have a few suggestions.
- Anchoring. Find a time when the client felt whatever they
want to feel when they drive. If they have a driving example, fine. If not,
some other context will do since it’s the feeling that matters. Anchor it to the
feel of the steering wheel in their hands, so it can be triggered automatically as they are driving, and boosted simply by squeezing the wheel. If
they are anxious passengers as well as drivers, you might anchor the desired feeling to the click of the
seat belt as it’s fastened since this will happen on every journey.
- Many of those with driving anxiety are constantly worried
about the bridge, motorway or tricky junction that occurs later in the journey.
Ask the client to use ‘commentary driving’ – describing aloud what they can see
and what they are doing as they drive. It focuses their mind on the here and now
and helps to prevent catastrophic thinking.
- Create some reassuring mantras or affirmations to help
challenge anxious thoughts, feelings or images and remind the client that they
do not represent reality.
- Teach simple breathing patterns that the client can safely use
(with eyes open, of course) whilst driving. These, along with the mantras, are
best practised at home or in the therapy room, and used in the car only after
the client is familiar with them so as not to be too distracting.
- Future pace whatever coping strategies you have chosen:
breathing, anchors, commentary driving etc. and associate using them with
success.
- Look for practical changes the client can make to support
the changes – can they leave a bit of extra time for journeys? plan ahead? travel
at a less busy time to start with? are they better with or without the radio on?
would a sat nav help? how recently have they had an eye test? or a medical to
rule out other causes for the anxiety (especially relevant if the anxiety occurs
in other situations as well)? if they are out of practice, would a couple of
sessions with a driving instructor be useful? We must be careful not to lead
the client to what we think is the best solution, of course, but a conversation
with clean language and open questions can often inspire them to come up with a
few ideas.
Dealing with the fear of driving
Coping strategies are helpful in the short term but, ideally,
we would like to help our clients let go of the anxiety, so it no longer
happens. Where you go with this one will depend on why and which aspect of driving is difficult for
your particular client, and whether you favour a more CBT or analytical
approach. But here are a few thoughts. Some of these suggestions are links that
will take you to instructions on how to use them if you are not already familiar
with the technique.
- Reduce stress and anxiety levels generally, this is especially
important if driving is not the only situation that triggers anxiety for the
client. Look at wider lifestyle habits such as diet, sleep, relaxation,
exercise, work/life balance, and so on.
- Avoid avoidance. Many clients simply don’t drive in the
places or situations that are most likely to trigger high levels of anxiety. Slowly
and gently reintroduce these situations, when the client feels ready. Virtual reality driving can be helpful for this reintroduction, if the client can access it, since the consequences of panic or mistakes are less severe.
- Desensitise the client to the anxiety triggers: collapsing anchors, rewind (fast phobia cure), a hierarchy of fears, and the NLP swish
pattern are all useful for this.
- Negotiate with the unconscious to change the behaviour:
parts therapy is my favourite way to do this, and I have a free ebook on using a six-step parts technique if you don’t already use it.
- Explore and resolve any underlying trauma: clearing metaphors, regression, inner child or timeline work.
You’ll find some more useful advice in other blogs on this
site such as Therapy for Phobias, and Five effective ways to help clients with panic attacks.
And if you have questions about dealing with this issue, or
want to suggest other hypnotherapy-appropriate ways of helping clients with driving anxiety, please post below. Just
remember to anonymise any clients you mention to protect their confidentiality.
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References
[1] https://www.theaa.com/car-insurance/advice/driving-anxiety
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Author: Debbie Waller is an experienced hypnotherapist and hypnotherapy trainer. She is the author of The Hypnotherapist's Companion and Their Worlds, Your Words and a co-writer of the Hypnotherapy Handbook, all of which are available from Amazon.
Find out more about Debbie's services on
Yorkshire Hypnotherapy Training - multi accredited hypnotherapy practitioner training, taster days and foundation levels.
CPD Expert - accredited CPD and other therapy training (online and workshops options), expert and qualified hypnotherapy supervision
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