At Spring Garden Counseling Inc., we have the right experience to help our patients deal with a variety of mental health concerns. For example, one service we offer is systemic desensitization to help manage and overcome phobias. In this article, we will provide an overview of systematic desensitization and how it works.
- Purpose – As we alluded to above, systematic desensitization is a treatment protocol designed to help those suffering from phobias. It can also be used to help those suffering from other conditions that include anxiety, such as PTSD. The goal of the treatment is to help the patient learn to deal with their fear and practice ways to cope with their anxiety without letting it rule their life.
- Method – Systematic desensitization is a type of exposure therapy. The patient works with their therapist to identify the source of their fear and anxiety, then they create a plan to work their fears. Your therapist will first teach you relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing, to help you achieve and maintain a sense of calm. Then, once you know how to achieve this calm, your therapist will introduce an element of your fear—for example, if you are using systematic desensitization to overcome arachnophobia, you might start by looking at a picture of a spider.
Once you can get back to a calm state and maintain it when exposed to that element, which might take many sessions, then your therapist will introduce the next element on your desensitization plan. This will continue until you are able to face the source of your fear while still maintaining control.