Psychological Management of Phobias

CBT Systematic Desensitisation Flooding

Cognitive Behavioural Theory

Cognitive behavioural therapy is a type of psychological therapy that combines (or blends) cognitive and behavioural therapies to help people manage mental health problems and disorders: cognitive therapy focuses on the role of cognitions (thoughts, beliefs and attitudes) in determining emotions and behaviour; behavioural therapy is the clinical application of learning theories such as classical and operant conditioning and deals directly with maladaptive behaviours such as avoidance and reduced activity levels

Cognitive Behavioural Theory

Key assumption of CBT: The way people feel and behave is largely a product of the way they think. What CBT doesnt do: CBT does not aim to persuade someone that their current way of thinking about an object or situation is wrong, irrational or too negative.

 The aim of the cognitive component of CBT in the treatment of a specific phobia, is to assist the client to develop a new understanding that the feared stimuli is not (or unlikely to be) dangerous, so their avoidance and safety behaviours are unnecessary.

 The aim of the behavioural component of CBT in the treatment of a specific phobia is to change any behaviours that are maladaptive (i.e. not helpful or even harmful).

Systematic desensitisation:
a kind of behaviour therapy that aims to replace an anxiety response with a relaxation response when an individual with a specific phobia confronts their feared stimulus; applies classical conditioning principles in a process that involves unlearning the association between anxiety and a specific object /situation and relearning feelings of relaxation (and safety) with that particular object/situation.

Fear Heirarchy
A fear hierarchy is a list of feared objects or situations, ranked from the least to the most anxiety-provoking Ideally, fear hierarchies should consist of 1015 specific situations with the steps gradually increasing in difficulty, for example:

 Step 11: Have the dog owner bring the dog into the same room, still on a leash, and you stroke it. Step 10: Have the dog owner bring the dog into the same room, still on a leash. Step 9: Have a dog owner bring a dog into a nearby room (on a leash). Step 8: Look at dogs from further out from the doorway. Step 7: Look at dogs from a doorway. Step 6: Look at dogs through a partly-opened window. Step 5: Look at dogs through a closed window. Step 4: Look at videos of dogs. Step 3: Look at photos of dogs. Step 2: Read information about dogs. Step 1: Draw a dog on a piece of paper. The client then works their way upward through the hierarchy one step at a time (starting at Step 1) whilst being encouraged to relax. No advancement is made to the next step until complete relaxation is achieved

Flooding
Very Similar to Desensitisation BUT does not have the relaxation component to it. Involves bringing client into DIRECT contact with the highly feared object or situation and keeping them there until anxiety symptoms disappear The purpose of this activity is to display the lack of danger present when in contact with the feared object