\n Mike Burman, founder of the Institute of Aquaphobia, said millions of people are missing out on a social life and life skills because of the fear of water.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “If this was a virus, it would be treated as a pandemic.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Yet millions are living with it, and it\u2019s never discussed.\n<\/p>\n
\n “People miss out on something as simple as a day at the beach or a swim with friends \u2013 and on a skill that could one day save their life.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Mike Burman, founder of Institute of Aquaphobia (Image: Institute of Aquaphobia\u00a0) It is estimated that around 12.8 million people in the UK avoid or are afraid of water.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Burman, 65, from Ferndown, has spent more than 30 years in swimming education and has trained more than 4,000 swimming teachers as specialist aquaphobia coaches.\n<\/p>\n
\n He first realised the scale of the issue when a parent at his swim school asked for lessons, saying they were too afraid to get into the pool.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “As soon as the other parents heard, it snowballed.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We discovered huge numbers of people too afraid to even enter a leisure centre, let alone the water.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Overcoming aquaphobia is about trust, environment and understanding human nature \u2013 not just technique.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The Institute of Aquaphobia, which launched in 2016, focuses on removing fear before teaching the biomechanics of swimming.\n<\/p>\n
\n Institute of Aquaphobia focuses on trust and gradual exposure over technique (Image: Institute of Aquaphobia\u00a0) Sessions are based on relaxation, building trust and gradual exposure, with clients only progressing when they feel ready.\n<\/p>\n
\n The institute has partnered with Bournemouth-based Individuality Swimming & Fitness, which delivers 2,500 swimming lessons a week in the county through a 70-strong coaching team.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Burman said addressing aquaphobia is both a social duty and a commercial opportunity for businesses.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: “There are millions of potential swimmers out there.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Helping them isn\u2019t just the right thing to do \u2013 it makes business sense.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Leisure centres, swim schools and holiday resorts are missing out on income from people who avoid their facilities.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Serving this audience can be transformative.\n<\/p>\n
\n “You are not alone.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Your fear is entirely treatable, and we go entirely at your pace.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Burman, founder of the Institute of Aquaphobia, said millions of people are missing out on a social…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260],"class_list":{"0":"post-87330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}