Essay Sample on Exposure Therapy for Phobias

The therapist introduces the need for exposure by giving real scenarios that convince the client that she can ease the phobia of exposure. The therapist goes ahead to inform the client that she needs to develop the feeling or believe that she can do it. These words serve to help the client confront her fears and deals with her phobia. The explanation provided that is agreeable to the client is that developing the belief that one can deal with scenarios that drive the phobia is the best strategy of treating anxiety (Wilson, n.d). The reason behind this explanation is that most of the time people fear confronting their worst fears and believing in oneself helps to deal with the fear of certain scenarios. The process of treating phobia relies on therapy sessions that help individuals to develop a believe and trust that they can deal with the problem.

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The activity of controlled suffocation helped the client to manage her breathing enhancing his tolerance. The different instances in which the client confronted her phobia were filled with episodes where the client felt suffocated. The activity allowed the client to manage her breathing and cope up with instances of suffocation. It is through this kind of exercise that the client would be able to manage to breathe whenever she confronted her phobia (Wilson, n.d). I agree with the sentiments of the therapist that the area of focus is the interpretation of the experience. One tends to imagine a lot of things when exposed to this kind of experience. Explaining to them that they will not die or nothing bad happens helps to instill faith to trust in their abilities. The explanation further demystifies all the misconception associated with such an experiment.

The therapist uses Subjective Units of Distress Scale to measure the level of distress of the client when subjected to a certain level of suffocation. It is through this scale that the therapist can be able to know the tolerance level of the client in the therapy session. It further helps in determining the right levels of suffocation that can help the client to improve her tolerance and overcome her phobia (Wilson, n.d). The strategy helps determine tolerance levels as the therapist can know the distressing ability of the client and the nature of suffocation that can affect the client's tolerance. The SUDS scale has proved to be effective in determining distress and tolerance is best measured by determining the distress of the client.

The vivo exposure allows the client to place herself in a threatening situation that could trigger her anxiety to the phobia. It is evident that the traumatic situations trigger this kind of anxiety and it is important for her to keep practicing to be able to enhance her tolerance level to acceptable levels of anxiety (Wilson, n.d). The client views the break sessions to be safe as it provides a reassurance that nothing bad will happen. Besides, it restores her anxiety levels to manageable levels. The therapist offers the measure of control of taking breaks between these sessions. The measure of control helps the client to gauge her progress and determine if there is any improvement in her tolerance levels. The therapist did well in this in enhancing anxiety treatment and helping the patient tolerate anxiety brought about by circumstances that reignite traumatic episodes.

References

Wilson, R. (n.d). Exposure Therapy for Phobias: Episode 3 of Strategic Treatment of Anxiety Disorders Series. Psychotherapy.net. retrieved from https://osu.kanopy.com/video/exposure-therapy-phobias