Aerial hijinks help phobic flyers
by Elsa Butler

The white writing across the instructor’s blue T-shirt reads, “Forget fear, worry about the addiction.” This is the motto of the Trapeze School New York, a place where people practice aerial hijinks like soaring through the air, swinging by their knees from a bar and somersaulting into a bouncy net.

It’s also a place where people use playfulness to solve a real problem – the fear of heights.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, Mistie Scott, a young mother from New Jersey, climbed up the 30-foot ladder to the platform suspended from the braces of a large white tent in Midtown Manhattan. Once she reached the top, an instructor grasped the back of her safety harness and Scott assumed the ready position of a trapeze artist.

Gripping the bar in front of her, she curled her toes over the edge of the platform and arched her back. When the instructor on the ground yelled “hep!” she jumped into the void below, swinging out over the rig and the tent floor carpeted in oriental rugs. She kicked her legs wildly but her shriek of fear turned into “woo-hoo!” as her friends cheered her on from below. 

“I have no idea how I did that, but it was very fun,” Scott said once she was back on terra firma. “I really have a major fear of heights but each jump gets a little better. I came to overcome this fear, so I’m feeling really proud of myself.”

Trapeze class in New York may seem an unlikely place to find people with acrophobia, or fear of heights. Yet many have mustered up the courage to embrace this playful circus spectacle as a way to face and conquer their fear.

Dr. Marika Kyrimis, a clinical psychologist, treats patients with phobias by slowly habituating them to the fear stimuli. Cognitive behavioral therapists say one of the most effective ways to overcome a phobia is to gradually get used to the anxiety-provoking scenario. 

“If they habituate to the anxiety enough times the fear will become a neutral stimulus,” Kyrimis said.

Scott is getting more comfortable with the height of the platform. “Maybe I was overreacting and thinking that I was going to fall off, but I realize that I’m really safe,” she said. “Once you let go, it’s just a big adrenaline rush.”

Learning new tricks, like the knee hang, reminds her of clowning around on the monkey bars as a youngster.

For phobic flyers, engaging in these aerial capers has far-reaching mental benefits. They report feeling more confident and able to tackle other challenges, like public speaking. 

They even admit to getting addicted to the adrenaline that trapeze hijinks offer.

“You’re scared, you’re freefalling and it just becomes you and the bar,” said Meagan Kirkpatrick who has been flying for 6 months. “You’re in a suspended moment, you can do something great or you could fall. It became addictive because I wanted control over the bar instead of the bar to control me."