see attached
Savannah Peer 1
In the textbook the outline for treatment for individuals suffering from social anxiety is centered around exposure and cognitive restructuring. Exposure in treatment settings can be very beneficial for a number of reasons such as “the opportunity to test dysfunctional beliefs and to generate more realistic ways of understand this self and others” (Barlow, 2021, p.119). Exposure allows individuals to be in their fearful situation and face it head on with the accompanying anxiety without avoiding or running from the situation. In the video Nicole arrives first to class and instead of interacting in conversation with her classmates she reads in her book, Dr. Albano wants her to try to branch out of her comfort zone and expose herself by arriving closer to the start time of class and to try and engage with her peers in class. In the therapy session goals were laid out that would allow Nicole to be exposed to her anxiety inducing situations there was a more cognitive approach also. Cognitive restructuring occurs when “clients learn to treat their anxiety-provoking thoughts and beliefs as hypotheses and to explore where he there are more helpful or realistic ways of viewing the situation, self, and others” (Barlow, 2021, p. 120). The “what if” questions that Nicole allows to block her from moving into situations and causes her avoidance changing the way she thinks of these right from the beginning is an exploration that is done to help her treatment. Exposure and ritual prevention is employed in treatment for individuals with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and these methods should be implemented simultaneously (Barlow, 2021). In the video Melissa showed she was obsessed with words and numbers and if they were able to be broken down into even parts in her mind, Dr. Lebow tries to expose her to words by opening a book and having her look at words she tries to not give into her ritual of breaking things down in her head. I believe someone with OCD tendencies like Melissa treatment and ritual prevention could be increasingly hard as the compulsion happens in her mind alone and it could be difficult to deter and observe. In both treatments cognitive strategies were utilized such as thought restructuring and ritual prevention, both these methods were utilized and explained to the clients to help with their unique situations. Exposure was utilized in both scenarios either directly or by giving ways to go about exposing ones self to the anxiety inducing situations. Exposure allows individuals to face situations or things they usually avoid and when it is therapist led exposure the client may feel more comfortable to face their situation and the therapist can give them tools to then take with them into the outside world when they are alone (Barlow, 2021).
References
American Psychological Association (Producer). (2012). Exposure Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder [Video file]. Retrieved from PsycTHERAPY database.
American Psychological Association (Producer). (2012). Learning to Overcome Automatic Negative Thoughts [Video file]. Retrieved from PsycTHERAPY database.
Barlow, D. H. (2021).
Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders (6th ed.). Guilford Publications, Inc..
Kristen Peer 2
To begin Module 2, my course mates and I had the pleasure of taking a deeper look at the symptoms of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), as well as the empirically supported treatments associated with each of these disorders. We acquired knowledge through reading chapters three and four of our course text book, and observed two different therapy sessions via video.
Social anxiety can be described as the inner fear of interacting in social settings, thus creating reluctance to do so. Contrarily, obsessive compulsions can be described as the inner motivation and aggression to do things repeatedly, without reluctance.
In Video 1, Nicole expressed that the manifestations of her social anxiety disorder have made her fearful of new social experiences and doing new things by herself. Nicole mentioned that social situations like meeting her friends at bars makes her incredibly anxious because she feels that everyone is watching her as she walks in. Dr. Albano guided Nicole through a type of cognitive behavior therapy, such as process-based therapy (PBT). In chapter 2, Barlow reported that, “cognitive-behavioral approaches have proven to be significantly better than equally credible but less focused psychological interventions, and its effects are increasingly powerful over time” (2021, pg. 108).
Similarly, Dr. Antony used a cognitive behavioral approach with the client in Video 2 who presented herself with obsessive compulsive disorder. However, Barlow states that “exposure and ritual prevention” (EX/RP), was later found to be extremely successful in 10 of 15 cases and partly effective in the remainder” (2021, pg. 139-140) when treating Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Process-based therapy provides treatment to clients by catering to their specific psychological needs. PBT also grants the therapist opportunities to utilize a multitude of therapeutic approaches, whereas exposure and ritual prevention therapy requires the therapist to get their client to focus of the object of obsession as a pathway to treatment.
References
Barlow, D.H. (2021). Clinical handbook of psychological disorders: A step-by-step treatment manual, 6th ed.
New York, NY: The Guilford Press. ISBN: 9781462547043.
