Exposure therapy is a very effective technique for treating various conditions. Especially for afflictions such as anxieties and phobias, it can be a way to systematically lessen the effect that they have on you and the impact they have on your life. Although there are many different ways to treat mental health conditions, this type of therapy can be a surprisingly Couples Counselling Vancouver quick method for recovery. This particular form of therapy requires that the patient be committed to overcoming their disorder as they will be exposed to things that they might currently avoid. However, if done properly, the amount of anxiety produced by facing these fears will be very minimal.
The difficulty many people have in choosing exposure therapy is that they feel as if they are going to be forced to face whatever situation or thing that is currently troubling them. If something makes you extremely uncomfortable, it would seem like an obvious choice to avoid it. However, delaying the inevitable will only serve to worsen the condition. However, what most people don’t realize is that this type of therapy involves gradually working up to the things and situations that cause you discomfort and, all the while, encouraging you to relax throughout the entire process.
The most basic explanation of exposure therapy is a systematic desensitization to that which causes you anxiety. For example, if you fear insects, you would not start out with being exposed to one directly. Instead, the therapist would assess your particular threshold and start out at a level that does not make you anxious. Perhaps viewing a picture of an insect is too much for you to handle in the beginning, but talking about them does not make you uncomfortable. In this case, the therapist would most likely start out by discussing insects while teaching you relaxation techniques.
The treatment would then progress through increasingly anxiety provoking steps, with the ultimate goal being that you no longer fear insects in any form whatsoever. However, each step is gradual and the patient only moves on when they are completely comfortable with the one that precedes it. This process, along with the relaxation techniques that are incorporated, make sure that any potential discomfort is kept to a minimum. Everyone undergoing this type of therapy will inevitably have their own, unique, pace. Some people will be able to move through the steps more quickly than others. However, no matter your particular process, exposure therapy is bound to be much faster and more effective than other forms of treatment.
