Gradually exposing people to the thing they fear, say a spider, in a controlled environment has long been the mainstay of treating phobias.
But with exposure therapy you don’t have to have a spider physically present in the room for you to feel the benefits. Psychologists and researchers are using virtual reality to help people face their fears.
What is exposure therapy?
Psychologists originally proposed exposure therapy, also known as systematic desensitisation, in the 1950s as a way of treating specific phobias.
The idea is that if you are presented with the phobic stimulus (for example, spiders or heights) repeatedly, but safely, then your fear reduces over time. In the case of a spider phobia (arachnophobia), exposure therapy may start with the spider in a cage or container so it cannot physically harm you.
What happens during exposure therapy?
Exposure therapy has three main elements.
First, you identify the situations or objects that make you feel afraid or anxious, or situations you avoid because of the phobia. You then rank them according to which ones provoke the most fear. This part of the therapy is known as constructing a fear hierarchy.
Then a psychologist teaches you how to progressively relax your muscles. This involves focusing on how you feel when you tense and relax different muscles. You use this relaxation technique when facing items on your fear hierarchy (or list). Here’s a video showing how progressive muscle relaxation works in practice:
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Source: theconversation