Systematic Desensitization - Assignment Example

The mind, body and soul are very much prone to phobias affecting the physical, mental and social well being of a person. The person should adopt the right strategy for phobia management depending upon the type of situation. Once the individual is learnt to adopt the style effectively and mastered he might apply multimodal strategies to combat with the phobias on physical, mental, emotional and behavioral levels. The phobias which are generated by thoughts or perceptions are very well handled by a technique of ‘systematic desensitization’.

Thus, the person is exposed to the dreaded situation in which he has conditioned response. The systematic desensitization procedure stepwise reduces the intensity of a series of responses by relaxation. This technique trains the individual to do psychological adjustment to the perceived threatening situation. It generates incompatible relaxation response which inactivates induced anxiety. To come out of phobia the individual’s irrational thought patterns causing stress, depression, and anxiety are inhibited.

Finally, if possible therapist actually exposes his/her client to phobia provoking situation, to evaluate the positive response. This form of behavioral therapy is administered by a psychotherapist, but can be self-exercised and delivers positive outcome through regular practice (Richmond, 2009). This therapy is effective in treating “free-floating” anxiety, such as social phobia or agoraphobia, performance fears, fear of the dark, elevation phobias, fear of dangerous animals, acquired fears from personal experience etc.

(Richmond, 2009).