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Systematic desensitization (also known as graduated exposure therapy or counterconditioning) is a type of behavioral therapy used in the field of psychology to help effectively overcome phobias and other anxiety disorders. More specifically, it is a type of Pavlovian therapy developed by South African psychiatrist, Joseph Wolpe. Once the individual has been taught these skills, he or she must use them in the third step to react towards and overcome situations in the established hierarchy of fears. The goal of this process is

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History of systematic desensitization
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Three steps of desensitization

 * 1) Another means of relaxation is cognitive reappraisal of imagined outcomes. The therapist might encourage subjects to examine what they imagine happening when exposed to the

A therapist may begin by asking the patient to develop a fear hierarchy. would list the relative unpleasantness of various levels of exposure to a snake. For example, seeing a picture of a snake might elicit a low fear rating, compared to the imagery of live snakes crawling on the individual---the latter scenario becoming highest on the fear hierarchy.
 * 1) would be presented with increasingly unpleasant levels of the feared stimuli, from lowest to highest---while utilizing deep relaxation techniques (i.e. progressive muscle relaxation) previously learned. The imagined stimuli a picture of a snake; a small snake in a nearby room; a snake in full view; touching of the snake, etc. At each step in the imagined progression, the patient is desensitized to the phobia through exposure to the stimulus while in a state of relaxation. As the fear hierarchy is unlearned, anxiety gradually becomes extinguished.

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Systematic desensitization and specific phobias
}}Specific phobias are one class of mental illness often treated via systematic desensitization. When persons experience such phobias (for example fears of heights, dogs, snakes, closed spaces, etc.), they tend to avoid the feared stimuli; this avoidance, in turn, can temporarily reduce anxiety but is not necessarily an adaptive way of coping with it. In this regard, patients' avoidance behaviors can become reinforced -a concept defined by the tenets of operant conditioning. The goal of systematic desensitization thus, is to overcome avoidance by gradually exposing patients to the phobic stimulus, until that stimulus can be tolerated. . In classical and operant conditioning terms the elicitation of the fear response is extinguished to the stimulus (or class of stimuli).

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Systematic desensitization and substance abuse
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Systematic desensitization and test anxiety
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Current use of systematic desensitization
Desensitization is widely known as one of the most effective therapy techniques. In recent decades, systematic desensitization has been used less and less as a treatment of choice for anxiety disorders. Since 1970}} academic research on systematic desensitization has declined, and the current focus has been on other therapies.