Behavioral Therapy

1. Behavior therapy is a broad term referring to psychotherapy in which the methods focus on either just behaviors or in combination with thoughts and feelings that might be causing them.
2. Systematic desensitization is a type of behavior therapy used in the field of psychology to help effectively overcome phobias and other anxiety disorders. More specifically, it is a form of counter conditioning, a type of Pavlovian therapy.
3. Exposure therapy is a technique in behavior therapy used to treat anxiety disorders. It involves the exposure of the patient to the feared object or context without any danger, in order to overcome their anxiety.
4. In response prevention treatment the escape response is maintained at all times and not just during specific practice sessions. Not only does the subject experience habituation to the feared stimulus, they also practice a fear-incompatible behavioral response.
5. Reciprocal inhibition is a technique in behavior theory in which training occurs to inhibit anxiety with a feeling or response that is not compatible with the feeling of anxiety.
6. Counterconditioning is the conditioning of an unwanted behavior or response to a stimulus into a wanted behavior or response by the association of positive actions with the stimulus.
7. Participant modeling is a behavior therapy technique in which the therapist models a problematic situation and then guides the patient through steps to cope with it unassisted.
8. Assertiveness training is a form of therapy based on the idea that a person could not be both assertive and anxious at the same time, and thus being assertive would inhibit anxiety.
9. In aversion therapy, the patient is exposed to a stimulus while simultaneously being subjected to some form of discomfort. This conditioning is intended to cause the patient to associate the stimulus with unpleasant sensations in order to stop the specific behavior.