Follow up notes to Video

Reference: . (2000). 27th December, ABC

In text: (Phobias: 27/12/00)

Phobia – extreme example of conditioned emotional response (CER). A phobia is an intense, irrational and persistent fear of a specific object, activity or situation. (Grivas et al:1999:336)

Flooding is a psychotherapeutic technique used to treat phobia. It works by exposing the patient to their painful memories, with the goal of reintegrating their repressed emotions with their current awareness. Flooding was invented by psychologist Thomas Stampfl in 1967. It still is used in behavior therapy today.

'Flooding' is an effective form of treatment for phobias amongst other psychopathologies. It works on the principles of —a form of Pavlov's classical conditioning—where patients change their behaviors to avoid negative stimuli. According to Pavlov, we learn through associations, so if we have a phobia it is because we associate the feared object or stimulus with something negative.

A psychotherapist using flooding to treat a phobia might expose a patient to vast amounts of the feared stimulus, hence if the patient suffered from arachnophobia, the therapist might lock them in a room full of spiders. While the patient would initially be very anxious, the mind cannot stay anxious forever. When nothing bad happens the patient begins to calm down and so from that moment on associate a feeling of calm with the previously feared object http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flooding_(psychology)

Desensitization

In psychology, desensitization (also called inurement) is a process for mitigating the harmful effects of phobias or other disorders. It also occurs when an emotional response is repeatedly evoked in situations in which the action tendency that is associated with the emotion proves irrelevant or unnecessary. Agoraphobics, who fear open spaces and social gatherings outside their own home, may be gradually led to increase their interaction with the outside world by putting them in situations that are uncomfortable but not panic-provoking for them. Mastering their anxiety in very small doses can allow them to take greater steps to self-reliance. Desensitization can be an alternative or a supplement to anxiety-reducing medication.

Behavior therapy

Behavioral therapists work to change problematic behaviors that have been trained through years of reinforcement. A good example of behavioral therapy would be a therapist working with a client to overcome a fear of heights. The therapist would encourage the client to gradually face their fear of heights through experience. The client might first imagine standing on the roof of a tall building or riding an escalator. Next, the client would slowly expose themselves to greater and greater levels of their fear until the phobia diminishes or disappears entirely. http://psychology.about.com/od/psychotherapy/a/treattypes.htm

EMDR stands for "eye movement desensitization and reprocessing." These words refer to the therapeutic technique of directing a client's eyes to move back and forth in a specific pattern guided by the therapist, while the client concentrates on disturbing or upsetting emotional material. The movement is thought to affect the way memory is accessed and treated. The words "desensitization" and "reprocessing" refer to the fact that disturbing affect is rendered neutral by the technique. As noted by psychologist Dr. Laurel Parnell, EMDR "processes and releases information trapped in the body-mind, freeing people from disturbing images and body sensations, debilitating emotions, and restrictive beliefs." (from Transforming Trauma: EMDR, By Dr. Laurel Parnell, 1997). Because EMDR works so rapidly, it is called an accelerated emotional processing tool. Clients may rapidly resolve emotional issues that might have taken months or years to treat effectively with other therapeutic interventions. http://www.sarahchanaradcliffe.com/EMDR.htm