Extinction Procedures Therapy

     Extinction procedures are used to weaken maladaptive responses, such as anxiety. Two types of extinction processes are flooding and implosion therapy. Flooding is meant to lessen anxiety by exposing a client to a controlled situation in which they experience the anxiety. The client will learn that the situation provokes no harm to them and they will realize their anxiety is not needed. With flooding the client is immediately placed in this situation and is forced to remain in it until they realize this.

     Implosion therapy is designed to weaken anxiety by having clients imagine as vividly as possible the unpleasant events that are causing them anxiety. Eventually the more that a client imagines a scene, the less anxiety they will feel when imagining it.

Related Links

Behavioral Psychology
Counterconditioning
Operant Conditioning
Modeling
Behavioral Activation
Biofeedback