Table of contents:
- What is the exposure technique?
- Objective of the exposure technique
- Characteristics of the exposure technique
- Example of exposure technique
- Steps for the exposure technique
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Currently there are different psychological techniques used to treat the most common anxiety disorders, such as phobias, social anxiety, post-traumatic stress or obsessive-compulsive disorder. One of the best known and that works best is the exposure technique, a therapeutic method that uses different procedures to reduce the patient's anxiety. What does it consist of? Is it as useful as suggested?
In this Psychology-Online article we are going to explain in detail what the exposure technique in psychology is, what its characteristics are, as well as the most used variants and how it can help us overcome our anxiety problems.
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- Objective of the exposure technique
- Characteristics of the exposure technique
- Example of exposure technique
- Steps for the exposure technique
What is the exposure technique?
Exposure technique is a type of therapeutic procedure used in clinical psychology to treat anxiety disorders. This technique involves confronting the patient with the feared object, context, or thought to help him overcome anxiety symptoms.
This working method bases its effectiveness on the fact that the patient learns, based on preventing him from avoiding or escaping, that the feared stimulus does not pose a real threat, which ultimately means that anxiety symptoms are reduced and eventually refer. In other words, the exposure technique interrupts avoidance behaviors (which increase fear and anxiety) and makes it easier for the patient to cope with the psychophysiological and cognitive signs of anxiety disorder.
A treatment related to this therapeutic technique is response prevention exposure, a widely used method for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in which the patient is exposed to the stimulus that causes fear repeatedly, without being able to lead take any action or compulsion to neutralize your fear. This technique has also been shown to be effective in treating post-traumatic stress and some specific phobias.
Objective of the exposure technique
The goal of the exposure technique is to create a safe environment in which the person can reduce anxiety, decrease avoidance of feared situations, and improve quality of life. It is believed that this technique could help patients in a number of ways; let's see how:
- Habituation: Over time, people find that anxiety reactions to feared objects or situations diminish.
- Extinction: Exposure can help weaken previously learned associations between feared objects, activities or situations, and poor outcomes.
- Self-efficacy: Exposure can help show the client that he or she is capable of facing their fears and can handle feelings of anxiety. Here you will find more information on how to overcome fears.
- Emotional processing: During exposure, the client can learn to join new and more realistic beliefs about feared objects, activities, or situations, and can become more comfortable with the experience of fear.
Characteristics of the exposure technique
There are several variations of the exposure technique and it is the psychologist who will determine which of them is the most effective or convenient for each individual patient. Let's see which are the most common and their characteristics.
- Live exhibition. The live exposure technique is performed directly in front of an object, a situation or an activity that the patient fears in his real life. For example, a person with a fear of cockroaches could be instructed to manipulate these insects with their hands, or someone with social anxiety could give a speech in front of an audience.
- Exposure in imagination. Imaginative exposure, as its name suggests, involves vividly imagining the feared object, situation, or activity. For example, someone with post-traumatic stress disorder may be asked to recall and describe their traumatic experience to reduce feelings of fear and anxiety.
- Exposure through virtual reality. In some cases, virtual reality technology can be used when live exposure is impractical or not effective enough. For example, someone with a fear of flying could take a virtual flight in the psychologist's own office, using a virtual reality equipment that provides the typical images, sounds, and smells of an airplane.
- Interoceptive exposure. Interoceptive exposure involves deliberately eliciting physical sensations that are harmless, but at the same time feared by the patient. For example, someone with panic disorder might be instructed to run and race their heart, thereby learning that the feelings of a panic attack are not really dangerous and that it is nothing more than a physiological function of their body..
Furthermore, exposure therapy can also be carried out in different ways. Let's see which are the most used procedures:
- Gradual exposure: the psychologist helps the client to build a hierarchy of fear of exposure, in which feared objects, activities or situations are classified according to their difficulty. It is usually started with mild or moderately difficult exposures, progressing to more difficult exposures.
- Flood Exposure - This is about using the fear of exposure hierarchy to start the exposure with the most difficult tasks.
- Systematic desensitization: In some cases, exposure can be combined with relaxation exercises to make the patient feel that they are more manageable, and to associate feared objects, activities, or situations with feelings of relaxation.
Example of exposure technique
To better understand how the exposure technique is carried out, we are going to give an example. In our case, we will apply the technique to a person with panic disorder.
In these cases, the objective is to desensitize the patient from the psychophysiological symptoms that are generated before and during a panic attack; It is also necessary to modify the beliefs and cognitive schemes that the person has about their own physical sensations through cognitive restructuring (a complementary technique to the exposure technique).
To address panic disorder, the most useful is to perform the interoceptive exposure technique: the symptoms of a panic attack are simulated in a controlled context in which the patient feels safe (for example, the psychologist's office or any quiet space), so that in this way the psychophysiological response is weakened (interoceptive conditioning).
For 1 to 2 minutes, the patient is asked to run, move his head from side to side, or turn around in a swivel chair to make the heart race and the physical sensations and symptoms typical of an attack appear. panic. This induction of symptoms should be done until the patient has no symptoms of anxiety and a complete desensitization has occurred.
The exercises should be brief (between 1 and 3 minutes) and the person should assess the level and intensity of anxiety so that the psychologist can record changes and improvements during the procedure. When the patient is already able to control sensations better in the later phases of therapy, desensitization exercises can be carried out by performing more natural activities (for example, climbing the stairs at home or practicing your favorite sport).
Steps for the exposure technique
To correctly perform the exposure technique, it is important to first determine what is causing fear in the patient, and then a series of steps must be followed:
- First, a hierarchy from 0 to 100 (from minimum to maximum anxiety) is made with situations in which the presence of the feared stimulus may occur. For example, from hearing a barking from afar (the least anxious situation) to having a dog in front of you and being able to touch and caress it (maximum anxious situation), in case of fear of dogs.
- Then the patient is asked to enter a state of deep relaxation. Once relaxed, you are guided to imagine scenes and situations in which the feared stimulus is present. This process is called systematic desensitization and is used to inhibit anxiety symptoms.
- In the event that imaginary exposure is not useful enough, live exposure can be used: confronting the patient with the feared stimulus in its real form in controlled situations and ensuring that the approach is gradual (unless the technique is used exposure due to flooding, which confronts the person in an abrupt way with the feared stimulus, with no option of escape).
- The number of sessions may vary from one subject to another and will depend on the intensity of the initial anxiety symptoms, as well as other psychological and contextual variables; Weekly sessions of between 30 minutes and 1 hour and a half can be held, interspersed with breaks, etc. The important thing is that the psychologist is the one who guides the procedure based on the patient's needs.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Exposure technique in psychology: what it is and characteristics, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical Psychology.
Bibliography- Fernández, M. Á. R., García, MID, & Crespo, AV (2012). Manual of cognitive behavioral intervention techniques . Desclée de Brouwer.
- Marlatt, GA, Parks, GA, & Witkiewitz, K. (2002). Clinical guidelines for implementing relapse prevention therapy. Addictive Behaviors Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Washington.