Written by
Linda Lombroso

Three months ago, Christie Johnson and Katherine Bromage decided they were fed up with being afraid of the water.

The women, sisters in their late 30s, had been aquaphobic since childhood. But with young children who enjoyed swimming, they’d grown increasingly frustrated sitting on the sidelines. They wanted to learn to swim, yet ordinary classes didn’t seem to address their fears.

Then Bromage discovered SOAP, or Strategies for Overcoming Aquatic Phobias, a program led by Jeff Krieger at the Saw Mill Club in Mount Kisco. Both sisters recently completed Krieger’s eight-week program and say they have conquered their aquaphobia — a fear likely triggered years ago, when a swim teacher held their heads under water at a summer camp near their Bedford Hills home.

That’s the last thing Krieger would ever do.

As a swimming instructor with a master’s degree in counseling, Krieger starts by addressing students’ fear of the water. Nobody is ever forced into the pool. “I do as much work with the head as I do with the water-adjustment skills,” says Krieger. “That’s where the phobia is. It’s in their head, and it’s deep, and it’s overwhelming.”

Even when Bromage made the initial phone call to Krieger, she hung up feeling nervous. “My first class, I was shaking like a leaf from beginning to end,” she says. “I couldn’t even put my face in the water.”

For Johnson, even the drive from her Brewster home was nerve-racking. “I had trouble breathing getting there,” she says.

Krieger, who created the SOAP program at Purchase College in 2000, says that aquaphobia afflicts even those who may show courage in other aspects of their lives. Among his former students is: a retired Marine who served in Korea and Vietnam. “He saw death on a regular basis, but he said stepping into a pool was by far the most difficult thing he ever had to do,” says Krieger.

Some have lived with a fear of water their entire lives. Krieger’s oldest client so far has been a 91-year-old woman. “She had never been in the water over her head,” he says. “Talk about carrying a monkey on your back for a long time — that’s about as long a stretch as it gets.”

Krieger also worked with a man who dreamed of becoming a Navy SEAL but was unable to get into the water. He ended up passing the aquatic component of the SEALS test, says Krieger, but failed on the eyesight exam.

Johnson, a third-grade teacher in Scarsdale, says most children would probably be shocked at the idea of an adult not knowing how to swim. Even adults who are swimmers don’t always understand the extent to which some nonswimmers fear the water, she says.

Yet Krieger’s technique — which includes a steady stream of emotional support — gave both sisters the confidence to push through their fears.

“I want them to immediately connect with me and have me be their security blanket,” says Krieger, who places equal emphasis on making sure students can function without him as the program winds down.

“I remember him standing there saying, ‘Just give me three seconds of your life. Just put your face in the water. I’m standing here. Nothing is going to happen,’ ” says Johnson. “It was the hardest three seconds of my life at that moment. It was frightening and empowering all at the same time.”

Tammy Neubauer, aquatics director at the Saw Mill Club, has seen Krieger’s students make rapid progress. “He’s just amazing,” she says. “People that were sort of clutching the walls are now able to go to our deep end and swim.”

For Johnson, the change has been astounding. “We started with putting my face in the water. At the end, I was sitting at the bottom of the pool,” she says.

Bromage still can’t believe she’s able to jump into the deep end — and that she is, in fact, a swimmer. Anyone can overcome aquaphobia, she says, but only if the desire is there. “Push that fear out of your head as long as you can just to make it to the pool, and then let Jeff help you get through the rest,” she says. “As soon as you get through that first class, you realize you can do anything.”

For Bromage, sharing the experience of learning to swim with her sister has made it even more gratifying.

“We actually have fun in the water together, and it’s something we were never able to do as children,” she says. “My whole life, I grew up thinking I’d never swim. Now I swim, and every time I say it, it feels strange.”

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Contact Jeff Kreiger, M.S. for more information:

Phone: (727) 741-3088
Email: jeffkrieger@waterphobias.com

The second round of summer group swim lessons begins Monday July 11th.

If you have a swimmer just beginning to show interest in the water or a swimmer in need of learning strokes or refining them please contact aquatics director Tammy Neubauer at 914-241-0797 ext. 3032 or email at tneubauer@sawmillclub.com to schedule either group or private swim lessons