Phobia Treatment
What is a Phobia?
People often throw around the term ‘phobia’ to refer to something that is feared or disliked. However, people who have true phobias experience significant distress and impairment in their day to day life and are often unable to complete required or desired tasks due to their fear. In these cases, the person’s fear of the situation/ object results in significant distress and avoidance of situations or places. In children, this can also sometimes result in school avoidance/ school refusal.
Phobias come in all shapes and forms and can be related to anything, but some common themes include blood-injection-injury (e.g., needle phobia), bugs, vomit, dogs, snakes, planes, heights, etc.
How do Phobias Develop?
Often, phobias begin after an uncomfortable or distressing situation occurs. With all fear, people then avoid situations where they experienced fear or distress. Unfortunately, this avoidance then strengthens the fear response and reinforces that the situation or object should be feared. As avoidance persists, this is reinforced and the fear associated with the situation becomes stronger.
How are Phobias Treated?
As with most anxiety-related disorders, evidence-based treatment for phobias involves exposure therapy. Typically, a client and psychologist will collaboratively create a list of feared situations and will rank this list from least feared to most feared (called a fear hierarchy). We will then start exposure therapy with the least-feared situations and slowly build from there. Through desensitization, this treatment allows the client’s brain and body to gradually re-write the fear response, and to re-learn that not only is this situation not as scary as initially felt, but also that the client is able to handle the level of discomfort associated with it. Some exposures tend to be completed during the therapy appointment, and others are completed for homework at home, in between sessions.
Treatment for Kids with Phobias
It’s important to recognize that a certain level of fear in various situations can be developmentally typical for children (e.g., fear of the dark, fear of being separated from parents). However, when these fears begin to affect a child’s daily functioning, treatment may be helpful or required. The process for treating phobias in kids is similar to that with an adult population, however, with children, the parents will be more involved in treatment in order to support their child and help them complete exposure therapy. With all clients, but especially with children, it’s imperative to create an environment where the child feels safe and supported, and where they feel that they have autonomy over their treatment. This often includes giving them decision-making power, which can look like giving them options about which exposure to complete next, as this increases their buy-in and engagement with treatment. Additionally, using positive reinforcement for good effort and success is also another helpful tool..
If you believe you or your child may have a specific phobia and wonder if treatment could be helpful, please reach out to your psychologist to discuss further.