Systematic Desensitization

Mactastic · May 07, 2014 at 05:20 AM

My therapist will start working my phobia (of the dentist) soon. I told him about my phobia a month ago but we're taking it super slow because I'm ashamed of my phobia. Up until this point we've only talked about how it felt to tell him.

Has anyone done phobia work? What was it like? Did your therapist try systematic desensitization? From what I gather it involves visualization a followed by relaxation/grounding. I'm feeling really uncomfortable about starting this. It'll be very different that my typical sessions and that concerns me.

Since I'm in therapy to work on relationships my therapist and I spend tons of time talking about our relationship. I'm scared there won't be time for that anymore

he says he works with phobias a lot but has never worked on my particular phobia. He seems confident, so why can't i?

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Freewilled · May 07, 2014 at 05:46 AM

It's difficult to change directions like that....any way you can look at it as though your T's confidence is a huge plus and means he believes he can help you? So if you can trust him with it, it could be part of the relationship building process....like it's a way to work on the relationship without talking directly about it, if that makes sense.

HazelGirl · May 07, 2014 at 08:43 AM

I am terrified of the dentist as well. I don't know what part of the experience is your phobia, but it's very common to have fears/phobias around dentists and dental work. There's nothing to be ashamed of. You might be surprised at the number of people who share your phobia

I eventually had to just go to the appointment and explain how scared I was. They prescribed me a very strong anti-anxiety medication and I got through the work that needed to be done. They did a lot of things to try to help me calm down, like talking reassuringly to me throughout, and they allowed me to "participate" to feel more in control of the situation. I can totally understand how scary it is, though.

coolibrarian · May 07, 2014 at 03:02 PM

I have a dental phobia, too, but it is much less of a problem than it was for many years. I also have some other phobias. When my T and I did systematic desensitization, before we ever did any visualizations, she told me to make a list of all the "parts" of the phobia, going from least afraid to most afraid, and we would work from that list. She also did EMDR with me, and that helped a lot.

Wren_ · May 07, 2014 at 09:58 PM

my old T tried more of an exposure therapy technique with me for one phobia ... this way sounds more gentle especially with the grounding process being involved as well; hopefully you can find time to keep talking about your relationship as well as working on this

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Systematic Desensitization

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Freewilled Grand Poohbah Member Since Mar 2013 Location: US Posts: 1,708 11 2,018 hugs given	May 07, 2014 at 05:46 AM #2 It's difficult to change directions like that....any way you can look at it as though your T's confidence is a huge plus and means he believes he can help you? So if you can trust him with it, it could be part of the relationship building process....like it's a way to work on the relationship without talking directly about it, if that makes sense.
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Wren_ Free to live Member Since Jul 2011 Location: In a sheltered place Posts: 27,669 (SuperPoster!) 13 5,051 hugs given	May 07, 2014 at 09:58 PM #5 my old T tried more of an exposure therapy technique with me for one phobia ... this way sounds more gentle especially with the grounding process being involved as well; hopefully you can find time to keep talking about your relationship as well as working on this __________________
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