FACING YOUR FEARS - PDF document

FACING YOUR FEARS Facing your Fears 3 FACING YOUR FEARSWelcome!Well done for taking this step to try and get on top of your Facing Your Fearstechnique called ‘Exposure and Habituation’. be a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner, often shortened to PWP, working within the Improving

Access to Psychological Therapies You’re in control of how 4 we’ll try to avoid it. Avoiding something that causes fear shortness of breath. However, this will mean we feel just as object causing us fear. This leads to the ‘Exposure and Habituation’and gradual way, hel

ping you build up to don’t have to carry on avoiding situations. Habituation’ to be effective, especially for Facing Your Fears workbook. You’ll this technique is best for you. You’ll also be To nd out more about the Your Fearsa little about Shay’s story and

5 Shay’s Storydogs for as long as I can remember. I don’t was missing out on and it didn’t seem right allow me to refer myself. So I just lled in was offered an appointment with Barjinder, a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner. my head, how I felt in my body, things I w

as and I couldn’t see how they were relevant. I also felt a little embarrassed as I couldn’t dog, I just felt scared very quickly. However, see that what I did and how I felt physically, We spent some time talking about the idea ‘phobia’. Anyway, I’d only heard of p

eople 6 we fear, in my case dogs. I didn’t like the be scared of. Facing Your Fearscalled ‘Exposure and Habituation’ may be fear of dogs still sounded terrifying. However, would last no longer than half-an-hour. responded a particular way. The workbook and Habituation’

approach. I can’t say it was 7 Worksheet. It may rst help to have a look at Shay’s completed worksheet. Then, using Vicious Cycle Worksheet overleaf, MY SITUATIONWalking to the park with Quinn and I see a dog by the gate. IMPACTQuinn missed out on the park again and I feel

bad about this. I end the day feeling terrible and embarrassed to tell my partner. MY PHYSICAL Increased heart rate, trembling, queasy, tense muscles. MY Scared and anxious. “Oh no, there’s a dog, I cannot go in the park! I’m feeling a bit queasy anyhow.” MY BEHAVIOUR

SGrab my son tightly and get home as quickly as possible. 8 My Vicious Cycle Worksheet MY SITUATION IMPACT MY PHYSICAL MY MY THOUGHTS MY BEHAVIOURS 9 The Vicious Cycle of Fear and AvoidanceAs we can see in Shay’s vicious be a quick reduction in fear-related better. Avoiding whatev

er is making Anxiety level (%)Time (minutes) 10 However, by simply avoiding it. Avoidance brings us immediate ’. However, the next phobia, our fear-related physical Anxiety level (%)Time (minutes) 11 . You’ve hopefully identied prevents the fear from being reduced in the l

onger-term. A technique called avoided is that the level of fear will naturally come down, a process called ‘habituation’. Anxiety levels when we repeatedly remain with the trigger Anxiety level (%)Time (minutes) Exposure Session 1 Exposure Session 2 Exposure Session 3 1

2 you confront your fear. top of the ‘Phobia Ladder Worksheet’ on already be starting to cause a little fear. If so, you. You will remain in ‘control’ at all times Four Rules Rule 1: Graded – Rating exposure activities in terms of their fearImportant Points Rate

each activity between 0-100 in terms of Write the activity causing you most fear at Phobia Ladder Worksheet Don’t separate activities in the hierarchy in terms of time. We don’t know how Phobia Ladder Worksheet 13 Rule 2: Prolonged – Staying in the situationImportan

t Points Work your way up from activities listed Worksheet Don’t separate activities in the hierarchy in terms of time. We don’t know how Rule 3: Repeated – Repeat each exposure activity Repeat your exposure to each activity in the hierarchy until your fear rating at the

start of the exercise is 40% or lower. Rule 4: Without Distraction – Allow yourself to ‘feel the fear’ Identify anything that helps you distract yourself to reduce your fear. These can be highly To ensure Exposure and Habituation works for you, you need to ensure that an

ything the fear. Phobia Ladder Worksheet Ladder Worksheetmanageable and successful. We recommend you use two worksheets,Facing My Phobia 14 Phobia Ladder Worksheet Phobia You Want to Overcome: My fear of dogsFear RatingRating (0-100)Lying on the floor as a dog jumps over me.Stroking a d

og off a lead.Being near a dog off a lead. Being the other side of the park where dogs are off their leads.Being no closer than about 20 metres from a dog but on a lead.Being close to my neighbour’s dog on a lead.Watching dogs when on television without closing my eyes. Talking about d

ogs.Looking at pictures of dogs. Fear RatingVery Severe Facing My Phobia Worksheet Exposure Exercise: Being no closer than about 20 metres from a dog, but on a lead.of ExerciseExposure Fear Ratings (0-100)Preparation for Exerciseof Exerciseof ExerciseExercise14/7/17I really didn’t want

to do this as it felt uncomfortable, but realise I need to sort it. Was tough though.16/7/17Was little better than before in my fear level but it dropped quicker this time. 17/7/17Can see this working, my fear dropped much quicker this time.19/7/17My fear was 50 at the start but thought be

st to complete, it felt good to complete, see it working. 21/7/17Although at the start my fear was less than 50 just wanted to make sure things got better and they did. Fear RatingVery Severe 16 Phobia Ladder Worksheet Phobia You Want to Overcome: Fear RatingRating (0-100) Fear RatingVery

Severe 17 Facing My Phobia Worksheet Exposure Exercise: of ExerciseExposure Fear Ratings (0-100)Preparation for Exerciseof Exerciseof ExerciseExercise Fear RatingVery Severe 18 Staying on Top of Your PhobiaWell done on getting this far. Hopefully you’ve found the Well Toolkit’If s

o however, there are a couple of things to ‘Exposure and Habituation’effective approach to overcome many, many, phobias. With some phobias Habituation’ on other things that cause you 19 My Staying Well Toolkit Worksheet What activities helped me feel better? What skills ha

ve I learnt working through this workbook? What techniques have I learnt from this workbook that were really helpful?What helped me put these activities, skills and techniques into practice? 20 My Notes 21 My Notes 22 My Notes 23 My Notes Professor Paul FarrandLow-Intensity Cognitive Behav

ioural Therapy Development and Research (CEDAR); Psychology at the University of Exeter. His LICBT, especially in a written self-help format. problems, Paul has developed a wide range Low-Intensity CBT Skills and Interventions: A Practitioner’s Manual Facing your Fears Facing your Fear