Case Study: Reframing Travel Anxiety to Confident Adventure

Client Name: Hannah (name changed)

Age: 29

Main Difficulty: Anxiety when travelling or making plans, constant focus on “what could go wrong?”

Approach Used: NLP Reframing, scenario work, and a focus on controlling what is controllable.

Presenting Issue

Hannah came to therapy feeling overwhelmed whenever she attempted to plan a trip or commit to travel. She described a constant internal voice asking:

“What if something goes wrong?”

As a result, she avoided travelling, cancelled plans at the last minute, and relied on reassurance from family and friends. Her anxiety was not present in everyday life; it was specific to travel and the uncertainty that comes with it.

Therapeutic Approach

1. NLP Reframing: Changing the Question

One of Hannah’s most unhelpful thinking habits was imagining everything that could go wrong. We worked on replacing that internal question with:

“What if this goes well?”

She practiced visualising positive outcomes—enjoyable trips, new experiences, memorable moments—rather than danger scenarios. This became a daily exercise to interrupt anxious thinking.

2. Focusing on What Can Be Controlled

Together, we explored which parts of travel anxiety were actually controllable. For example: booking insurance, researching safely, packing properly, staying flexible with plans.

We also named the things outside her control, such as weather, flight delays, and queues.

The goal was to invest emotional energy only into what she could influence.

3. Best Case / Worst Case / Most Likely

For each fear, we broke it down into three possible outcomes:

• Worst Case: What realistically could go wrong?

• Best Case: What could go right?

• Most Likely: What is the sensible prediction based on real-world likelihood?

Example: Fear of flight delays.

Worst case: The plane is delayed, she waits and arrives tired.

Best case: The flight is smooth and early.

Most likely: A small delay, but she still arrives safely.

Working through these scenarios helped Hannah realise her mind was exaggerating risk and ignoring the far more likely neutral or positive outcomes.

Results

With these techniques, Hannah reported a large reduction in anxiety within just four sessions. In that time, she:

✔ Booked a UK weekend trip

✔ Used the reframing tools throughout planning

✔ Travelled with only mild nerves

✔ Started a journal titled “What Went Well?”

This success gave her confidence to continue. Two months later, she booked her first solo trip abroad—something she had dreamed about but avoided for years. She described herself as feeling:

“Prepared, not petrified.”

Therapist Reflection

This case shows how powerful it can be to shift from fear-based questions to possibility-based thinking. Instead of forcing confidence, we re-trained Hannah’s mind to respond differently to uncertainty.

By learning to control what she could, accept what she couldn’t, and recognise the realistic “most likely” outcomes, she unlocked a life goal that previously felt impossible.

Want to Try This Technique Yourself?

Next time your mind says “What if this goes wrong?”, try asking:

“What if this goes well?”

Then imagine the best or most realistic outcome—not just the worst one.