Relaxing Your Fears Away Systematic Desensitization By: Alex R.

Systematic Desensitization Decreasing your level of anxiety or fear very gently and gradually First suggested by Joseph Wolpe Used in treatment of anxiety disorders, and more specifically, phobias A behavior therapy used to unlearn ineffective behavior

Theoretical Propositions Research began as study of reduction of fear in rats Photo of cat presented during feeding Reciprocal inhibition Wolpe used these ideas to try to treat human anxiety in his 1961 study –The systematic desensitization treatment of neuroses –39 test subjects, totaling 65 phobias

Step One: Relaxation Training The first five to six sessions with your therapist deal not with the phobia, but working to achieve total relaxation Progressive form of muscle relaxation is used Process involves tensing and relaxing various groups of muscles throughout the body until deep state of relaxation achieved After training, the patient is able to achieve total relaxation whenever they want

Step Two: Construction of an Anxiety Hierarchy Develop a list, with your therapist, of anxiety producing situations or scenes Begin with a situation that is slightly uncomfortably Continue to list up to the most frightening situations List can have anywhere from around five to 20 items on the list

Example Hierarchy: Claustrophobia 1.Reading of miners trapped 2.Having polish on fingernails with no way to remove it 3.Being told someone is in jail 4.Having a tight ring on finger 5.On a journey by train 6.Traveling in an elevator with an operator 7.Traveling alone in an elevator 8.Passing through a tunnel on a train 9.Being locked in a room 10.Being stuck in an elevator

Step Three: Desensitization The actual unlearning No direct contact with the feared situation is necessary First: Place yourself in a state of deep relaxation Second: the therapist begins walking your through your hierarchy –You imagine the situation and try to remain calm –If you remain relaxed, you continue through the hierarchy –If you experience anxiety at any time, you are instructed to raise your index finger –If anxiety occurs the therapist stops, you return to full relaxation, and the description begins at a number lower on the hierarchy The process continues until the patient is able to remain relaxed throughout the whole hierarchy

Results 39 cases reported in Wolpe’s article39 cases reported in Wolpe’s article Success of therapy judged by patients’ own reports and by occasional direct observationSuccess of therapy judged by patients’ own reports and by occasional direct observation Desensitization process rate of success determined as:Desensitization process rate of success determined as: –Completely successful (freedom from phobic reactions) –Partially successful (phobic reactions of 20% or less of original strength) –Unsuccessful Out of the 39 cases, total of 68 phobias treatedOut of the 39 cases, total of 68 phobias treated –62 of the phobias (35 patients) were completely or partially successful (91% success rate) –The other 9% unsuccessful were mostly due to special problems that did not allow for proper treatment. These problems included inability to imagine the situations presented in the hierarchy Average number of sessions was 12.3Average number of sessions was 12.3

Criticisms Mainly people from psychoanalytic camp –Claimed that these methods were only treating the symptoms and not the underlying causes of anxiety –They believed other symptoms would appear to replace the ones treated Wolpe followed up that 25 of the 35 patients who received successful desensitization had no reports of relapse or new phobias for the four years he followed up the patients

Recent Applications After publication, Wolpe’s methods are considered treatment of choice for anxiety disorders, especially phobias Paul (1969): Public speaking phobia –Practice speech, split into treatment groups –Systematic desensitization proved to be most successful Fredrickson (2000) –Use of reciprocal inhibition to cancel out negative thoughts with positive ones Zettle (2003) –Math phobia: progressive relaxation, math hierarchy –11 out of 12 successful

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