The crash landing of BA flight BA038 at Heathrow will no doubt have made quite a few people nervous.

And we're not just referring to the people involved, who will understandably be very shaken up. All over the country, countless people with a fear of flying will be reading and watching every piece of news on this incident they can lay their hands on.

Halloween is just around the corner, and each year it seems to bring an increasing number of little ghosts, ghouls and witches to the door (as well as some not so little ones!). For most people, it is little more than an excuse for kids to dress up and collect some sweets, or an excuse for adults to curl up and watch a scary DVD. However, this seemingly innocuous American import can stir up some pretty powerful phobias.

The overwhelming and irrational fear of Halloween itself is called Samhainophobia, but Halloween can also affect those with related phobias, such as the fear of spiders (arachnophobia), the dark (nyctophobia), cats (ailurophobia), witches (wiccaphobia), ghosts (phasmophobia), or cemetaries (coimetrophobia) - to name but a few!

With Halloween activities being increasingly popular in the UK, perhaps Samhainphobia will become more prevalent. Meantime, here are ten top tips for a safe and fun Halloween:

Today is Friday the 13th, considered by some to be a very unlucky day, and for those with paraskavedekatriaphobia (fear of Friday the 13th) or triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13) it is especially troubling. In the USA, it is estimated that around 21 million people (8% of the population) have a significant fear of this date.

There are a number of theories as to why this particular date has been considered unlucky, though the true origins have been long lost. Some of the more popular theories plant the roots in a mixture of Christian and Norse tradition.

According to the 'Fear of Flying' programme broadcast tonight on Channel 4, as many as one person in five of us has some degree of phobic reaction to flying - that's 20% of the population!

High profile disasters and terrorist atrocities, such as 9/11, only serve to heighten our fears. According to research reported in New Scientist this week, television distorts our perception of reality, making us more prone to misjudging the actual risks.

Known as the "availability heuristic", first identified in the 1970s by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, people are more likely to pay attention to the vividness and emotional impact of past events than on the probability of them happening again. In other words, people tend to rate their chances of dying in a plane crash higher after watching a news item about such an event.

As Hypnotist Lawrence Leyton shows in the Channel 4 'Fear of Flying' programme, it is possible to erase the negative thoughts and feelings of terror with positive feelings, no matter the source of the fear.

At North Kent Hypnotherapy, we use all the underlying techniques shown in the programme (as well as others) to help clients overcome their fears and phobias. Unlike the programme, however, we let clients test themselves in their own time and in their own way (as we don't have to make the experience interesting watching for television).

So if you are one of the many people who suffer from fear of flying, why not give us a call to see how we can help you. Or if you are out of our area, why not select a competent and ethical therapist based nearer home by visiting the Quest Institute or the National Council for Hypnotherapy.

An article in this week's Sunday Times highlights the benefits of NLP in helping people overcome habits and negative behaviours. As Anita Chaudhuri reports, NLP is a way of reprogramming the mind in order to change negative behaviour.

It works by identifying subconscious pessimistic patterns, then zaps them by replacing them with new thoughts and images. A typical example would be the habitual smoker who is prone to lighting up when sipping a morning espresso or a glass of wine at the end of the day. An NLP therapist would program their brain to desire something other than a cigarette at those trigger moments.

NLP is just high-tech hypnosis says, Paul McKenna. Your brain is like a computer, and it?s as if you are installing new software to overwrite programs that no longer work. The key programs of human behaviour are habit and imagination, and they are far more powerful than logic or willpower. I?ve seen people make astounding changes in their thoughts and behaviour quickly.

(Sunday Times - 5th February 2006)