The History of CBT
Marcia L. Rosal in Cognitive-Behavioral Art Therapy, 2018
G. Wilson (1978) labeled the second type of behavior therapy the Neobehavioristic Mediational Stimulus–Response Model, which uses the principles of conditioning and counterconditioning to mitigate abnormal behavior (i.e., usually fears and anxieties). S–R treatments were based on learning theories such as those conceived by Pavlov (1927) and others familiar to art therapists. Included in this type of behavior therapy are the techniques associated with systematic desensitization and flooding, the goal of which is to decrease or extinguish the fears and anxieties relating to phobias. Clients are instructed to imagine the frightful situation or object, identify their response, and finally, visualize the consequences of engaging with the problematic condition. Imaginal or symbolic representations produce an arousal response not unlike exposure to the real object or in situ conditions. The introduction of mental imagery, a higher cognitive process, is a step towards hypothesizing that cognitive mediators, as part of behavior therapy (or what G. Wilson labeled “neobehavioristic” methods), are useful in treatment (p. 10). What follows in this form of behavior therapy, through incremental exposures in a hierarchical manner to the feared event, is that an individual learns to effectively cope with their anxieties. Today, systematic desensitization is still used, but often in conjunction with anti-anxiety medications, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and/or relaxation treatments.
Solving pet problems
Clive R. Hollin in An Introduction to Human–Animal Relationships, 2021
Some treatments move away completely from drugs and pressure wraps in using standard behavioural methods of change. Systematic desensitisation is a classic treatment method used with human anxiety disorders. Developed by the psychiatrist Joseph Wolpe (1915–1997), the effects of systematic desensitisation are gained by the individual learning to cope with a graduated exposure to the fearful object or situation (Wolpe, 1958, 1962). Butler, Sargisson, and Elliffe (2011) used systematic desensitisation in the treatment of eight dogs with separation anxiety as seen in their destructive behaviour, soiling or excessive barking when alone. Butler, Sargisson, and Elliffe describe the treatment protocol:Owners carried out the treatment themselves following instructions provided. Owners were instructed to place their dog in isolation with food treats 3–4 times per day, with a minimum of 1 h between isolation periods. Starting with a 5-min separation period, owners were instructed to increase gradually and variably the period of separation in increments of 5 min until a period of 30–90 min was reached without recurrence of separation-related behaviour. After reaching that point, isolation durations were increased more rapidly. If the dog displayed evidence of separation-related behaviour, owners were instructed to return to the longest period not previously associated with separation-related behaviour and to proceed more gradually. (p. 140)
Treatment of Psychological Disorders
Mohamed Ahmed Abd El-Hay in Understanding Psychology for Medicine and Nursing, 2019
Systematic desensitization is a method in which the client undergoes a series of anxiety-provoking stimuli while remaining calm. It is based on the principle of reciprocal inhibition, described by Wolpe. The principle states that if a response incompatible with anxiety is produced at the same time as an anxiety-provoking stimulus, the learned association between anxiety and the feared object weakens until the fear disappears, that is, anxiety is reduced by reciprocal inhibition (Wolpe, 1958, 1964, 1982). The client is first trained to use relaxation techniques to reduce fearful responses, e.g., Jacobson’s progressive muscular relaxation in which the client first tenses and then relaxes major muscle groups of the body in a predetermined order, usually beginning at the top of the body and progressing downwards. The person is taught to observe the feeling of the muscles when they are relaxed and to discriminate among various degrees of tension. Sometimes drugs and hypnosis are used to help people who cannot relax. The next step is to create a hierarchy of the anxiety-producing situations, where the patient is asked to list all the conditions which provoke anxiety, then is asked to list them in a descending order of anxiety provocation.
The role and creation of pressure in training: Perspectives of athletes and sport psychologists
Published in Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 2023
William R. Low, Paul Freeman, Joanne Butt, Mike Stoker, Ian Maynard
Applied interventions have continued to focus on PT’s effects, but few have provided rationale for their pressure manipulations that produced those effects. One exception is Bell et al.’s (2013) study that punished cricketers if they did not meet standards in batting drills. The intervention was grounded in systematic desensitization training, which exposes individuals to stressors to overcome phobias and anxieties. The threat of punishments allowed the players to practice coping with professional cricket’s threatening environment in which mistakes could be costly to one’s career. However, no subsequent studies have further explored the use of punishments or similarly explained their pressure manipulations. van Rens et al. (2021) had cricketers choose which forfeits to use because such autonomy could increase motivation during the training, but allowing players to choose the forfeits assumed that the players knew sources of pressure for themselves and feasible ways of simulating those sources. The absence of manipulation checks left the effectiveness of the chosen forfeits unclear. Providing stronger rationale for pressure manipulations could help practitioners translate interventions to other sports and populations.
Mental Health and the Pandemic: New Looks
Published in Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 2022
So, what can be done if someone is afraid to go out? Do people suffering from cave syndrome need professional treatment or just a bit more adjustment time? It all depends on the level of severity. If a person has symptoms of exhaustion, depression, or anxiety, measures that provide a sense of purpose in life: meditation, faith work, prayer, playing or listening to music may be helpful (Newsome, 2021). If anxiety is beginning to affect work life or relationships with friends, family, or romantic partners, these are signs that it is time to seek help from a mental health professional. And those experiencing physical symptoms, such as headaches, tightness or tension in the neck and shoulders, stomach aches, or difficulty sleeping or concentrating, should also seek help from a professional. Treatment for more extreme levels of anxiety may require psychotherapy with a mental health professional who can offer cognitive therapy or desensitization therapy that gradually exposes a person to a stressful situation to resolve their fears (Newsome, 2021). In the gradual exposure known as systematic desensitization therapy, people are encouraged to focus on what is within their control and to reintroduce activities slowly. Medication also may be used at times. However, postponing reentry out of fear only increases anxiety which feeds on avoidance.
HYPNOTIZABILITY AND PAIN MODULATION: A Body–Mind Perspective
Published in International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2018
Maurizio Varanini, Rita Balocchi, Giancarlo Carli, Giulia Paoletti, Enrica L. Santarcangelo
The positive correlation between prethreshold RR and pain threshold observed during suggestions of analgesia indicates that bodily signals may be relevant to the construction of the individual experience of pain, in line with the body–mind view supported by neuroimaging studies showing that the autonomic activity is monitored at cerebral level (Critchley, 2009; Critchley & Garfinkel, 2017; Damasio, 2010). Because the correlation between pain threshold and prethreshold RR values is significant in highs but not in lows, we may hypothesize that the body–mind axis is stronger in the former. In this respect, it may be interesting that interoceptive information (as measured by questionnaires) is better detected by highs than medium and low hypnotizable participants (O. Incognito, personal communication, March 10, 2017). Greater relevance of the interoceptive information in highs could be partially responsible for the finding that in a single experimental session, specific suggestions of relaxation associated with imagery of fearful situations reduce the heart rate in highs reporting unchanged fear (Sebastiani, D’Alessandro, Menicucci, Ghelarducci, & Santarcangelo, 2007). In fact, deeper embodiment of subjective relaxation may have been induced in highs not only top-down by greater imagery abilities and higher functional equivalence between imagery and perception (Santarcangelo, 2014) but also bottom-up by more efficient body monitoring. Both mechanisms could sustain the efficacy of systematic desensitization therapies (Craske, 1999; Davison, 1968; Marks, 1987).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Anxiety Disorder
- Applied Behavior Analysis
- Behaviour Therapy
- Classical Conditioning
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Cognitive Restructuring
- Phobia
- Radical Behaviorism
- Counterconditioning
- Covert Conditioning