Officials at the Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs (DUO) in Groningen, formerly the IB-Groep, will soon move to a 24-story apartment. The boss is offering a course in vertigo. Perhaps with 'the phobia doctor' Edwin Selij (35) from Wormerveer
DUO employs two thousand people. How many of them would be afraid of heights?
Vertigo
"Research in the U.S. shows that about 30 percent of people are afraid of heights. That's America. In the Netherlands, I believe, vertigo ranks sixth among fears. Let's say a quarter of the Dutch have some form of fear of heights. There are gradations, of course. Some people already panic from a kitchen ladder, others only panic when they stand on the edge of a cliff. I know people who cling to the wall in the galleries of flats. There are also definitely people who suffer from it inside such an office building, maybe twenty of those two thousand."
Should the DUO and engage you, how would you go about it?
"I'm not a psychologist. I am a coach. To me, anxiety is a form of behavior. Behaviors can be learned on and off. I teach people new skills. Through hypnosis, NLP (neurolinguistic programming, ed.) or with the EMDR method in which I make eights with my finger in front of someone's eyes. This causes both hemispheres of the brain to actively participate and allows people to process their traumas.
"I would first explain to people why it is that they are afraid of heights. It's because they don't look properly. In such a high building, they don't dare to look outside and that actually reinforces the fear. I teach them to look differently.
"I would take a group approach. It can also be done by phone, but that would take me a while. I would start with the group nicely on the ground floor. After a day and a half, I would have helped most of them."
DUO also wants to help staff with elevator anxiety. Will that go the same way?
"Yes. Elevator anxiety falls under claustrophobia and also has to do with distorted perception. I call it: creating a visual illusion. In the elevator, people focus on the number that jumps or the button they just pressed. They don't look anywhere else and thus feed their fear."
The Netherlands has many high-rise office blocks. Ever heard of one of these being handed to you by the boss?
"No. But I do think it's a nice gesture."
What if someone is not healing?
"That assumes it's a disease. That's not how I see it. If someone has not learned new skills after a day and a half I will say to the DUO, 'This person still needs some phone support.' So long might be an idea if he does some work at home'. A place on the first floor is out of the question. I understand that the first eight floors will be occupied by the Inland Revenue."
