WITH air travel becoming cheaper and easier the world is getting smaller, but for me, the world remains a very large place.

I have been afraid of flying ever since I can remember. I have flown and I will fly but I hate it.

Ask me to choose between India and the Isle of Wight and the little island will win every time.

Boat? No problem. Boeing 747? Tears, tantrums and terror.

My fear, or should I say phobia, is so powerful and all-encompassing that it was restricting my life - until I met Pat Farmer, a therapist.

Pat uses EFT, Emotional Freedom Therapy, which can help people who are suffering with a variety of problems, including fears, phobias, stress and smoking.

The technique, which is of Chinese origin and was founded about 5,000 years ago, has been described as "an energy-based psychology which clears emotional blockages."

Pat says the therapy works like acupuncture without the needles because it works on the body's energy lines, known as meridians.

My fear of flying has been so ingrained for so many years that I was a little sceptical, but I lay back on the couch and closed my eyes, nonetheless.

I gave Pat an outline of my fear and she asked me specific questions about my fears and how I was feeling.

Pat held my hand and touched the side of my face. Strangely I felt instantly relaxed. She then began tapping anti-clockwise across the top of my chest, over my chin to above my top lip.

As the technique continued Pat would ask me to rate my fear from nought to ten at various intervals.

"It can work straight away or it might take several treatments - it depends on how deep the problem is but the beauty of EFT is that it gets to the root of it," Pat said.

"It is amazing. Fears are like a forest and the technique knocks down tree after tree until eventually I will find the root cause of the fear or phobia."

And this is what happened. After nearly three-quarters of an hour I was still clinging to my fear.

Pat used kinesology, a form of muscle-testing, to find out if my subconscious was holding on to the fear. It was, so Pat asked me more about my phobia and it dawned on me that this fear started when I was eight years old after visiting a school fete.

I paid some money to visit a fortune-teller. I use the term loosely, Rosie Lee was a fellow pupil and not much older than me at the time. She told me that I would be in a plane crash. The fear has stuck despite.

Pat said: "The technique still amazes me every time. I have had clients come to me because they were unable to straighten their hands, after a tapping session they were able to open them.

"Energy-tapping works. It is incredible."

The technique was intensely relaxing and as soon as I left Pat, I decided to book a flight and go on holiday.

My only problem is deciding where to go. Funny really, but the Isle of Wight has started to lose its appeal.

Pat works from her Verwood home, she can be contacted on 01202 813881.