Driving Anxiety and Confidence Course Introduction
It is far from unusual for us to see clients experiencing problems with driving fear and anxiety around driving situations with its associated issues. When some people drive, they feel that they are out of control, that they are in danger or that they are trapped in the vehicle so feelings of panic start. Just the thought of driving can trigger a full panic attack. Sometimes this fear is triggered because the person has felt some danger when they are in the car but on other occasions the problem is linked to something else which does not immediately seem obvious to the person behind the wheel. Our courses are for driving fears and are designed to help calm down the fear and anxiety response and then where possible find the root cause of the problem.
A state of confidence is the complete opposite to a state of anxiety. When people are in a calm and relaxed state they feel much in control, more focused, and in charge of their fate. Our job is to teach our clients how to enter this state naturally through coaching techniques so they can utilise these feelings to remain calm when they are in their cars. Just this form of stress and anxiety reduction alone is usually enough to significantly reduce fears around driving. When our clients have got used to being able to enter a deeper state of calmness, their minds are more easily able to remember the incident or incidents that may have started their problem without it triggering flashbacks or panic. Our driving confidence course for driving fears is designed to help change the subconscious learning from this incident so that new positive behaviours can be introduced.
In many cases the problems our clients tell us about are nothing to do with driving. For example, if you are feeling stressed at work and have a nightmare boss you may experience panic in the car on the way to work. You believe that the problem is because of the car but in fact it is the issue with stress at work that is the real issue. Or perhaps you are experiencing panic about panic; for instance, you may have had intense feelings of anxiety at one junction on a motorway so anytime that you drive past that same junction you believe that the same problem could happen again. We help you understand that this is an irrational response so that you can take back control.
Driving Anxiety and Fear of Motorway Driving
Our clients experience problems with all kinds of driving issues such as driving tests, general driving, fear of driving over or under bridges, but the one that comes up most often is a fear of motorway driving. This tends to be because motorways are much faster roads, there is a large amount of traffic on them and it can be difficult to easily get off them and stop if you feel feelings of panic. In fact, motorways are some of the safest roads there are, but this does not mean our clients won’t experience irrational thoughts. As with problems with general driving anxiety we spend time trying to find out what the root cause of the problem is so our clients can take back some control.
Post collision Fear and Anxiety.
We often have clients that have been involved some sort of road traffic collision (RTC). This can have a devastating effect on a person’s confidence to drive. The first response is to never want to drive again in case they are involved in another RTC, which is a classic avoidance response to a traumatic event. The problem with this approach is it quite often makes the situation even worse and the longer a client does not drive the worse the fear and anxiety becomes around driving. The after effects of being in a serious RTC quite often will trigger post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and intrusive thoughts around driving. We would normally recommend a combination of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or hypnotherapy alongside our specialist driving course for fear and anxiety around driving.
Post course support
Once your driving course has been completed, we will write a detailed report covering everything we have advised to help with your future driving. This report can be very useful when dealing with vehicle insurance companies for clients who have diagnosed PTSD around driving since they were involved in the road traffic incident. As we are accredited DVSA, ORDIT and Fleet registered we are recognised as professionals in our field of work.
Questions & Answers
Our course is specifically designed to help with these types of situations and to help get you driving again. They are designed around your own requirements and are bespoke to your needs around driving. All our courses are delivered at your own pace and are all bespoke. We normally recommend at least 3 half days for these types of situations.
Our courses work really well with clients receiving CBT following an RTA and associated post traumatic stress disorder(PTSD). It can be a long process taking many months but in our experience the outcomes are generally very good for the client. We recommend at least 3-6 half day sessions alongside the CBT. We would give the client ‘home work’ to do in-between the half day training sessions. We would also give the client a full written report to assist with any ongoing insurance claims or court procedures. These reports can sometimes assist in these situations that are quite complex.
No, you are not too old at 65 to have some refresher driver training on motorways. We see this a lot with more mature drivers and is quite common. Our courses can definitely help with this.
Yes, we can help you with this. In fact, we have seen this a lot in the last couple of years due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions that were in place with driving. We normally build up slowly with these types of clients and eventually make a plan for the client to plan a trip to somewhere they have wanted to drive to with our assistance and coaching while they drive to the destination.