Systematic Desensitisation

• The main assumption of the behaviourist approach is that all behaviour is learnt. Behaviourist therapists draw the principles of classical and operant conditioning in order to help people unlearn learned behaviour . Systematic desensitisation is based on classical conditioning principles. It was developed by Joseph Wolpe in the 1950s and is used to treat phobic disorders.
• Systematic Desensitisation is based on the idea of counterconditioning where client learns to associate phobic object with being relaxed. Operant conditioning is also featured in this therapy . When the client feels relaxed in the presence of the phobic object this is rewarding and such positive reinforcement encourages client to move up to the hierarchy to more feared situation.
• First component of SD is counterconditioning . The eventual aim is to acquire a new stimulus -response link moving from responding to stimulus with fear to responding with relaxation this is called counterconditionig
• Second component is Desensitisation hierarchy which is a series of gradual steps that are determined at the beginning of therapy. Client and therapist work out a hierarchy of feared stimuli from least fearful to most
• Third component is different forms of SD. In the early days SD clowns would learn to confront their feared situations directly (in vivo desensitisation ) by learning to relax in the presence of objects or images that would usually cause them anxiety. In most recent years therapist asks subject to imagine fear stimulus instead if presenting it to them (in vitro) . Research has found that actual contact with feared stimulus is more successfull (menzis and clarke 1993) in vivo is more successful than covert
• Desensitisation Hierachy

  1. Patient is taught to relax their muscles
  2. Therapist and patient together construct a desensitisation hierarchy (series of imagined scenes each one causing a little more anxiety than the previous)
  3. Patient gradually works their way through hierarchy visualising each anxiety evoking event whilst engaging in the competing relaxation response
• Desensitisation hierarchy

  4. Once the patient had mastered one step in the hierarchy (manage to stay calm) they are ready to move onto the next

  5. Patient eventually masters the feared situation that caused them to seek help in the first place