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Summary The behavioural approach to treating phobias
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Notes on treating phobias
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The behavioural approach to treating phobiasKey terms
- Systematic desensitisation: a behavioural therapy designed to reduce an unwanted
response, such as anxiety, to a stimulus. SD involves drawing up a hierarchy of anxiety
provoking situations related to the phobic stimulus, teaching the patient to relax and then
exposing them to phobic situations. The patient works their way through the hierarchy
whilst maintaining relaxation
- Flooding: a behavioural therapy in which a phobic patient is exposed to an extreme form
of a phobic stimulus in order to reduce anxiety triggered by that stimulus. This takes
place across a small number of sessions
Systematic desensitisation
Systematic desensitisation (SD) is a behavioural therapy designed to gradually reduce phobic
anxiety through the principle of classical conditioning
- If the sufferer can learn to relax in the presence of the phobic stimulus then they will be
cured
Essentially, a new response to the phobic stimulus is learned (the phobic stimulus is paired with
relaxation instead of anxiety)
- This learning of a different response is called counter conditioning
It is impossible to be afraid and relaxed at the same time so one emotion prevents the other
- This is called reciprocal inhibition
There are 3 processes involved in systematic desensitisation:
The anxiety hierarchy
- Put together by the patient and the therapist
- It is a list of situations related to the phobic stimulus that provoke anxiety, arranged in
order from least to most frightening
Relaxation
- The therapist teaches the patient to relax as deeply as possible
- This can involve breathing exercises or mental imagery techniques, i.e. imagining
themselves in a relaxing situation, as well as meditation or drugs such as Valium
Exposure
- The patient is exposed to the phobic stimulus whilst in a relaxed state
- This takes place across several sessions, starting at the bottom of the hierarchy
- When the patient can stay relaxed in the presence of the lower levels of the phobic
stimulus they move up the hierarchy
- Treatment is successful when the patient can stay relaxed in situations high in the
anxiety hierarchy
Evaluation of systematic desensitisation
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