The Treatment of Phobias

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Everyone in life has fears, it’s a natural way our brains process certain objects or situations that may be dangerous. Common fears may be heights or spiders; some would rationally go out of their way to avoid these, but this is quite different from having a phobia. A phobia is an irrational distress with a particular object or concept/idea. Although fears are well known now, they do not have to disrupt the lives of those who are living them. Throughout the essay there will be three different treatments with three different phobias in ways to cure a phobia; the first is a trauma-focused treatment approach for travel phobia, assessment and treatment for childhood phobias, and hypnosis in facilitating clinical treatment of injections.
Several people today suffer from travel phobia, yet there is little data regarding the phobia. The purpose of this study was to review the usefulness of a trauma-focused treatment approach for travel phobia from a cognitive behavioral therapy. Such technique used for the study was Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) for a 184 person case from a rehabilitation provider. The reasoning for these particular tests was to enact a full body approach where as it tested all stimulated to the body instead of just one part. This was interesting because instead of focusing on the brain and how it functions, it focuses its method on full body awareness and really having the body get involved when consulting a phobia. A method that is somewhat controversial is using in vivo exposure; this refers to the direct confrontation with the stimulus of fear (object, activities, or situations). In vivo exposure is less strong as some might want to admit. This type of methods is only beneficial for certain pho...

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...perating hypnosis.
Reviewing three different methods of treatment of phobias there are several options to take into consideration from standard treatment such as in treatment study two or a more unusual treatment such as hypnosis.

Works Cited

de Jongh A, Holmshaw M, Carswell W, van Wijk A. Usefulness of a trauma-focused treatment approach for travel phobia. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy [serial online]. March 2011;18(2):124-137. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 12, 2013

King, N. J., Muris, P., & Ollendick, T. H. (2005). Childhood Fears and Phobias: Assessment and Treatment. Child & Adolescent Mental Health, 10(2), 50-56. doi:10.1111/j.1475-3588.2005.00118.x

Medd, D. Y. (2001). FEAR OF INJECTIONS: THE VALUE OF HYPNOSIS IN FACILITATING CLINICAL TREATMENT. Contemporary Hypnosis (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.), 18(2), 100

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