Systematic desensitisation

• Systematic desensitisation: A behavioural therapy designed to reduce an unwanted response, which involves drawing up an anxiety hierarchy, teaching the person to relax, and then exposing them to phobic situations
• What is systematic desensitisation?

  A therapy designed to reduce phobic anxiety through classical conditioning - if a person can learn to relax in the presence of the phobic stimulus, they are cured
• In systematic desensitisation, a new response to the phobic stimulus is learned - this is called counterconditioning
• What are the three processes in systematic desensitisation?

  The anxiety hierarchy, relaxation, exposure
• What is the anxiety hierarchy?

  A list of situations related to the phobic stimulus that provoke anxiety from least to most frightening
• What is relaxation?

  Where the client is taught to relax as deeply as possible - this might involve breathing techniques or mental imagery techniques
• What is an alternative way of achieving relaxation?

  Drugs
• In relaxation, it is impossible to be afraid and relaxed at the same time, so one emotion prevents the other (reciprocal inhibition)
• What is exposure?

  When the client is relaxed, they are exposed to the phobic stimulus. They start at the bottom of the anxiety hierarchy, working their way up
• When is a treatment of systematic desensitisation successful?

  When the client can stay relaxed in situations high on the anxiety hierarchy