How YOU can overcome your phobias by breathing out of one nostril and journaling, according to top trauma expert... So can he rid our fear-stricken science writer NIKKI MAIN of her irrational phobia?

The fear of flying and public speaking was something author Christopher Jones struggled with when he became a phobia therapist nearly 20 years ago.

Since then, he has overcome his, and dozens of others' phobias ranging from debilitating to utterly bizarre - from a fear of tinsel and scrambled eggs to specific occasions like Halloween and birthdays.

His new book 'Face Your Fears' provides readers with the no-nonsense tools to overcome their fears - and they don't require paying for expensive therapy.

In an exclusive interview with Dailymail.com, Jones, a UK-based author and therapist, explained that people can overcome their phobias through various at-home methods like practicing breathing techniques and journaling.

Scroll down for testimony from our science writer... who's TERRIFIED of one particular pastime

Christopher Paul Jones is the author of 'Face Your Fears,' and was inspired by his own phobias to become a therapist nearly 20 years ago

Roughly 20 to 25 percent of people have a dislike of flying while one in 10 people suffer from a severe fear of flying, according to 'Face Your Fears'

Jones was motivated to write 'Face Your Fears' in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He noticed that people who had been only a little socially phobic before 2020, were suddenly terrified to do things like get on a plane because they hadn't been in a confined space with other people for three years and that germ phobias were suddenly 'amped up to the max.' 

READ MORE: The A-Z of weird and wonderful phobias: From clowns and urination to peanut butter in the mouth, photographer snaps our bizarre inner fears 

One photographer has captured all the things that scare us in an A to Z of phobias. 

People experiencing anxiety can work on their fears using breathing techniques, and while they don't cure phobias, it will relax your mind and body before you need to focus on other tasks. 

Jones found slowing down our breathing by just 10 percent can help to reduce the panic attacks people develop when they encounter their fear.

It engages the parts of the brain that makes you more aware of what's causing the anxiety and makes the heart rate to slow down which helps reduce the anxiety.

One type of breathing technique is called nostril breathing, typically used by yogis, which involves alternating the nostril you're breathing through by using your fingers to close one nostril at a time.

This activates what's called the vagus nerve, which regulates the heart rate and aids in reducing the amount of stress you feel when you encounter your phobia.

Another technique Jones swears by is writing down your fears - putting the what-ifs on paper.

Such thoughts like 'What if I'm not safe?' or 'I'm okay now, but what if I feel bad later?'

The author suggested people should then rank the 'what-ifs' on a scale of one to 10 how likely it is that the scenario will happen and then rank the emotions that accompany each statement and put them in order from the strongest emotion to the weakest. 

From there, Jones said you need to say the statement out loud and recognize any feelings or emotions that go along with it, and then consider what-ifs that would make you smile instead, even if they are unlikely to happen.

By shifting this mindset, you might notice the negative what-ifs getting weaker until they disappear entirely or become background noise when you encounter a stressful situation, according to Jones.

The first thing you should do whenever you face this thing you're scared of is ask yourself: 'What do I picture in my mind?' 'What do I say to myself?' 'What do I see?'

Jones also said seminars can be a helpful tool to getting over your fears such as events that are advertised as 'Get over your fear of flying,' which could prove beneficial by not only finding tools to help, but also finding a support group in the process.

A fear of spiders can be passed down through generations. A child might see their parent or another relative reacting

Developing social anxiety can be handed down from parents to their children if they should they're nervous about their child leaving the house

Seminars are conducted using facts and statistics that may appeal to the more logical, rather than emotional, side of a person because it tries to change the way you perceive your fear using information alone.

It is a purely analytical approach to phobia treatment, Jones wrote in his book, and it will likely need to be paired with other techniques to be effective.

Jones said he wrote 'Face Your Fears' to show people that getting over a phobia isn't as difficult as some people might believe, and added that it isn't just about tackling the phobia – 'It's about freedom.'

'I think the big, big lesson I try to give people in the book is that a life without fear is a much better one,' he said.

'Basically, when we can let go of our fear we have so much freedom. And yes, you might feel you don't want to dig or don't want to look at [what caused the fear].

'But that's where all the answers lie.'

He added: 'That's where all the freedom lies. And so it's not about getting over a phobia. It's about getting back your life.'

Did the doc cure my fear of skiing? 

Nikki Main, DailyMail.com's Science Reporter

By Nikki Main 

I've always had a fear of skiing, since before I'd ever laid eyes on a slope. 

I was afraid of going off the edge, being hit by a fellow skier, and crashing to my death - but it wasn't hard for me to identify where my fear began.

My mom was like most moms - she commiserated with me when I was sad or stressed and cheered me on when I participated in the school play, something I was driven to do because I wanted to be like her.

But when I met with Jones to discuss my fear of skiing, we realized that's where it all started - I wanted to be like my mom.

She has been afraid of skiing for the last 30 years, ever since she nearly died when another skier cut her off as she flew down a slope and crashed, breaking her jaw and falling into a day-long coma.

It's a story I've heard many times and made me petrified of skiing, but as I got older I decided it was time to make the jump and strap on a pair of skis, but I could not have been more scared.

I told Jones that I hyperventilated as I took the lift up to the top of the slope and I cried when I saw how steep the mountain was, but I kept trying before finally cutting my losses and decided skiing wasn't for me.

Jones said that some people experience anticipatory anxiety – or fear of fear and build up the worst-case scenarios before facing it.

You may have a voice inside your head telling you that you're scared, or you're going to cry, or think 'Everyone's going to laugh at me,' if you have a fear of public speaking; but if you flip the script to imagine that voice as the most boring person you've heard, it will completely change the meaning you give it, he told me.

This is called scrambling – when you locate the root cause of the fear and change it to make it funny or to change the way you look at it.

Jones told me to rank my fear on a scale of one to 10 - I ranked it as a nine - and visualize the first time I rode up the mountain in that ski lift and tell him what I remember thinking in that moment.

I told him I kept thinking 'Oh my gosh, what if I fall?'

He had me picture that voice in my favorite animated character, but when I couldn't think of one, he suggested Goofy. 

I felt silly as I heard Goofy's voice in my head saying: 'Oh my gawrsh,' on repeat, and when Jones asked me to rank my fear, I said it was still high - a seven.

He tried several other tactics including thinking about my happiest memory and relating it to that moment of skiing, giving myself a hug and massaging my temples, cheeks and arms, but at the end, that ranking had only gone down to a five.

We repeatedly tried the methods and before long, I started to feel better about skiing - I wanted to jump on a slope right then and there and see if I could do it - I was miraculously cured.

But by the time I sat back down at my desk an hour later, I wasn't so sure.

Those feelings were back - the fear was back - and no matter what I did, I couldn't stop the anxiety from resurfacing every time I thought about booking a ski trip or sitting down on that ski lift. 

I finally came to the realization that I hadn't been cured at all, it almost felt like I was brainwashed into thinking I had overcome my fear.

Jones said most of his patients overcome their fears at the end of a 90-minute session, but I remain unconvinced.