Systematic Desensitization : Treatment for Phobia

This treatment is often used to help people suffering from specific phobia. Through progressive exposure, sufferers can unlearn unhealthy strategis such as avoiding. They are taught to face their fears by "getting used" to them at different intensities. Systematic Desensitization has also been utilized to help students deal with test anxiety. The children were assisted in ascertaining their sources of fear and were trained to apply distress reduction techniques.

Systematic Desensitization can be in vivo or in vitro. In vivo means the client is presented with the actual feared object or situation. This involves bringing stimuli to the therapist's clinic or going to certain areas where feared situations take place. On the other hand, the in vitro technique lets the client imagine phobic conditions.

Process of Systematic Desensitization
1st step: Identify your hierarchy of anxiety triggers.
It is important to first establish the stimuli that elicit fear responses. These are various objects and situations that the client has observed to evoke significant anxiety. For instance a person who has arachnophobia may place looking at spider photos at the lowest level while actually touching them would be on top. The well-thought out hierarchy will give a concrete picture of the distressing factor as well as a guide in gradually progressing the exposure.

2nd step: Learn coping and relaxation techniques.
Since it is not possible to be relaxed and anxious at the same time, Wolpe facilitated relaxation exercises among his patients. The method entailed a series of tensing and relaxing body parts which results to a calmer condition. Learning relaxation skills such as controlled breathing and meditation can better empower the client by giving him tools which he can utilize in distressing situations.

3rd step: Apply learned skills to your fear hierarchy.
The final step of counterconditioning is introduced when the client is at his most relaxed conscious state. The anxiety trigger that was placed at the lowest level of fear hierarchy is presented and relaxation techniques are applied whenever symptoms of a panic attack arise. The procedure is then repeated until the most intense stimulus is reached.

CRITICS
Regarding the in-vitro technique, the success relies on the patient's ability to imagine the stimulus. Some individuals do not have the ability to have very vivid imaginations; thus making the desensitization process challenging. Moreover, exposure therapy does not address the root of the problem. Since it only concentrates on the manifested behavior, the treatment merely addresses the anxiety symptoms. Also, systematic desensitization could not be applied to other cases such as mood swings and schizophrenia.