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A form of exposure therapy, flooding pushes patients back into the traumatic experience, forcing them to confront their repressed anxieties and memories. The therapy works, some experts believe, because it reintegrates the two parts of the traumatic memory: the picture of what happened and the emotion attached to it. "When people are first traumatized, they're in an aroused emotional state," says Johanna Gallers, a clinical psychologist and director of the Valley Trauma Center, a crisis intervention center near Los Angeles, who has used flooding extensively with clients. If they don't deal with the trauma at the time, their "feelings get trapped, encapsulated in that heightened state. Often the only way to retrieve those repressed memories is by simulating that original emotional state as much as possible" so they relive the trauma.

What's different is that now they are safe, going back to the fearful memory with a trusted therapist. "They realize they won't get hurt this time," explains John Fairbank, a clinical psychologist who worked for seven years with traumatized vets at the V.A. hospital in Jackson, MS. "Talking about the event tends to be therapeutic, a way to work through your fears. The first few sessions are very emotional for patients, but that tends to diminish with repeated exposure." Normally the treatment lasts for 12 to 15 weeks and is followed up by traditional counseling.


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ok.. flooding has been used for phobias for ages....

I guess if your T says it can help you, then it will.

How are you today, (((yack))) ?