Exposure Therapy for Phobias

Authors

  • Beatrice Popescu

Abstract

Reid Wilson’s approach to treating anxiety disorders draws upon cognitive behavior therapy techniques to create a brief, aggressive, paradoxical treatment for people who suffer from anxiety disorders. Research has shown that exposure therapy is by far the most effective way to get lifelong results in the treatment of specific phobias.

Not many therapists had a chance to see live therapy sessions with real clients and neither to access a good training specific for phobia. In the help of those trainee therapists eager to have rapid and long-lasting results with their clients comes the video in which Reid Wilson is giving step-by-step specific instruction to both trainee-therapists and client.

Reid conducts two sessions with a real client, Mary, who experiences different phases and facets of claustrophobia: the fear of using elevators (especially crowded ones), the fear of traveling in tunnels without being able to see the light at the end as humorously dr. Wilson noticed, the fear of parking in tight and dark parking structures and most of all, the fear of flying, which is the most invalidating for dr. Wilson’s client.