Clinicians use different psychotherapy to treat anxiety disorders. Systemic desensitization is one of the popular treatments in the psychologist community for its effective reduction of anxiety. This treatment can effectively alleviate the symptoms of panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. Mainly, treatment has become popular through its significant effect on reducing different types of phobias. In phobia, a person becomes highly sensitive to any stimulus. For example, a person is full of fear of dark places, so he is sensitive to these places. The purpose of this therapy is to reduce this sensitivity even if people are desensitized in the dark. In this way, a person does not feel anxious when facing any dark place. The second important thing is that the clinician systematically induces this desensitization.

There are two important things during the treatment period. First, clinicians can use relaxation techniques and primary treatments. The second thing is that the clinician breaks the treatment in small steps [from the most fearful to the most fearful] and starts with the smallest steps.

These things are not separated from each other. Relaxation technology is paralleled with system desensitization. It is also important to understand that clinicians are treated in small steps. They never try to eliminate phobia in a jerk. There are other psychotherapies that focus on eliminating symptoms immediately by sudden exposure to fear that causes irritation. These methods are known as flooding methods, but clinicians do not recommend this method because it can cause harm to individuals.

At the beginning of the treatment, the clinician listed the situation that caused the fear. The clinician has no power to decide which thing is a threat to his client. He listed this list based on customer suggestions. The customer himself will say which situation is the most threatening and which one has the least threat to him. The list of fears that customers have during system desensitization can take the form of a hierarchy.

We will take the example of a person who fears darkness. His level may include the following steps.

1] Feel fear when considering dark places [this is the least fearful emotion].

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2] I am afraid when I go out, and I may face any dark places.

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3] I feel fear when I pass through any dark place.

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4] Fear when entering a dark place.

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5] Fear when he has to stay in the dark for at least five minutes [this is the most fearful emotion].

When the clinician begins treatment, he starts with the least fearful situation [fear when considering dark places]. The clinician asks the client to imagine this situation. When the customer imagines this, he automatically becomes anxious. At this point, the clinician introduces relaxation techniques through verbal expression and deep breathing. The clinician asks the client to relax the body part one by one. He said to customers "Now stretch your arms and loosen them." In this way, the clinician guides stretching and relaxing different body parts. He repeats the same process for all steps in the hierarchy. Customers must perform these steps over and over again. In this way, customers become habitually relaxed in different situations of fear arousal. Finally, the clinician asks the client to imagine the most fearful situation [staying in the dark for at least five minutes], and when the client becomes anxious, he asks him to calm down by relaxing techniques. In this way, the system's desensitization eliminates the individual's phobia.

Systematic desensitization – how to eliminate phobia was originally published on Spring