Systematic Desensitization

This is revealed through the anxiety hierarchy. Items which generate the most anxiety appear at the end of the list while items which elicit the least anxiety are placed at the top. E.g. a man has a slight phobia of heights but a severe one of mice. Height would be placed at the top while the mice would be on the bottom of the hierarchy. This hierarchy provides the basic information in order to desensitize the phobia. It can be described as the first stepping stone in order to overcome fears and phobias.

This step involves the patient to participate in various exercises and movements of the body in order to put them at ease of fear or anxiety and successively unlearn the phobia. Systematic desensitization aims to teach patients to cope with their phobias. With the patient in a state of relaxation this will allow them to be exposed to each item from the hierarchy without them conveying any sense of fear. E.g. a person with a phobia of needles would be presented with various associations to needles such as an image of a needle, placing a needle close to the patient and imaging they went to visit someone in hospital. The previously learned relaxation techniques would be requested to be put into practice while being presented with the associations to