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pyschologist
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
ok i have had my second session with a psychologist about a phobia. i have a terrible frog phobia and its been stopping me doing things. any hoo the first session she asked me about the whole frog thing but she also asked me loads of questions about my life and my family and my past and where i was now etc etc. when i saw her yesterday we talked more about my family. how did i get on with my mum dad my two brothers, what were they like what was my relationship like with them and similar questions about my fiance and i ended up talking about all sorts of things. we did also talk about the phobia and made a plan.
my question is why does she need to know all these things about my family and relationships and things that have happened to me that dont realy appear to have anything to do with the phobia??
my question is why does she need to know all these things about my family and relationships and things that have happened to me that dont realy appear to have anything to do with the phobia??
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The reason she asked about your past is because there is usually a strong underlying problem or an event that may have happened along time ago, this didnt nesecerally have to be a frog jumping on your face or anything but perhaps something that caused you great destress and now every time you see a frog this bad feeling comes back....you could say that the frog is just a trigger to something else and she will help you find it....so tell her as much as you can about what she ask:thumb: s..
depends on the methods your psychologist uses. some methods are better than others. tbh i'd say exposure therapy would be your best bet, rather than talking about life in the past andnot focusing exclusively on the problem. also if you are paying for it, the less time (and money) it takes for you to get over it, the better... bearing in mind if you are talking about everything instead of focusing, its going to take much longer.
That way you'l get the right reason behind it all instead of everyone potentialy guessing wrong.
First, she needs to know the other stuff because, as has been said before, most of the time phobias are connected to past family and/or emotional issues, even if it doesn't seem that way to you, because these are unconscious issues. So she has to search in all your background what could be the cause of this phobia - hence the questions. This doesn't mean you necessarily have some major family trauma that you aren't aware of, but most of the time there are some unresolved conflicts or simply some emotions that we aren't aware of that are causing the problem. And finally maybe there isn't a connection at all (sometimes a cigar is just a cigar). Be the way it may, she has to rule every possibility out though, she can't know which it is until she has asked you all this stuff.
The second reason is that through all those questions she's probably also checking on your general state of mental health to make sure there aren't any other mental health problems, whether connected to the phobia or not. It's like when you go to the doctor for a specific reason (say, stomach ache), they'll still give you a general check-up, not only concentrate on your stomach. It's just a basic health premise.
And by checking up on you general mental health state through these questions she'll also learn what structure and type of personality you might have, because given that some kinds of therapeutic methods are contraindicated for some personality structures it will give her guidance of the best method to use on you. (For example, it's not recommendable to treat a person with psychotic tendencies with strong exposure therapy). Tbh you sound pretty sane but she has to rule out all these possibilities before she tries anything.
There are different therapeutic approaches to overcoming phobias. The exposure route as you called it is a behavioural technique. Depending on the the nature of the phobia, the underlying problem behind it and the theoretical orientation of the therapist a method is chosen to treat the phobia.
Scientific studies have proved that behavioural methods are the most effective and fast way to get rid of phobias, so that's what most therapists would do nowadays. But depending on the other factors mentioned, plus many others, like the time there is for therapy, etc, some psychologists will stop there whilst others will try to complement it with other kinds of psychotherapies or counselling aimed to tackle the supposed underlying issues.
And last but not least I second the suggestion to ask her directly - hearing the answer from her will put you more at ease and hence increase the opportunity of success of your therapy. Plus, you're completely entitled to.
I hope the above is not too complicated. Anyway, good luck
However the exposure method is usually very successful, like you said, she is starting at the bottom of the hierarchy, in this case with pictures and I am guessing you might be given homework assignments perhaps and will move up a stage each time you see her.
Anyway I hope it goes well for you, good luck with reducing the phobia. It would be really interesting to hear what stages you go through with her and if it is working.