a form of counterconditioning that trains the client to maintain a state of relaxation in the presence of imagined anxiety-inducing stimuli. (524)
A major behaviour therapy procedure that has a fearful person, while deeply relaxed, imagine a series of progressively more fearsome situations. The two responses of relaxation and fear are incompatible and fear is dispelled. This technique is useful for treating psychological problems in which anxiety is the principal difficulty.
A therapy designed to gradually reduce fear about a particular stimulus by substituting a relaxed response for the fear response.
the use of programmed imagery in a systematic way to help desensitize someone from an anxiety or phobia
A way of curing an individual's fear by pairing the feared stimulus with a stimulus that induces relaxation. Early pairings involve associating the relaxing stimlus with a situation that is not extremely fear-provoking. Over time, the therapist pairs the relaxing stimulus with stimuli that were more fear provoking until the therapist has paired the relaxing stimulus with the most feared stimulus. For more, see anxiety hierarchy.
A behavior therapy procedure widely used to modify behaviors associated with phobias. The procedure involves the construction of a hierarchy of anxiety-producing stimuli by the subject, and gradual presentation of the stimuli until they no longer produce anxiety.
Behavioral therapy technique in which the patient is presented with a graduated hierarchy of anxiety-provoking stimuli.
The systematic imagining of a traumatic event over and over again with suggestions of feeling more relaxed each time to lessen the underlying feelings of anxiety.
a technique used in behavior therapy to treat phobias and other behavior problems involving anxiety; client is exposed to the threatening situation under relaxed conditions until the anxiety reaction is extinguished
A behavioral therapy aimed at breaking the link between the anxiety-provoking stimulus and the anxiety response in which a patient gradually confronts the object of fear.
A behavior therapy technique in which hierarchies of anxiety-producing situations are imagined (or sometimes confronted in reality) while the person is in a state of deep relaxation. Gradually the situations become dissociated from the anxiety response. See also anxiety hierarchy, behavior therapy, counterconditioning.
Systematic desensitization is a type of behavioral therapy used in the field of psychology to help effectively overcome phobias and other anxiety disorders. More specifically, it is a type of Pavlovian therapy developed by a South African psychiatrist, Joseph Wolpe. To begin the process of systematic desensitization, one must first be taught relaxation skills in order to control fear and anxiety responses to specific phobias.