Decoded Neurofeedback: A Case Study

In the text “Relaxing Your Fears away,” the author presents how Joseph Wolpe, a behavior therapist, used a behavioral technique called systematic desensitization to treat anxiety disorders. Systematic desensitization is a technique that is supposed to lower a person’s level of anxiety steadily. The reason he used this technique was to see if this technique actually worked using his prior ideas that two feelings or responses cannot occur at the same time. Wolpe focused on the phobias his patients had and proposed that when his patients were in a relaxed state, then they would not respond with fear when presented with something that gave them anxiety.

According to “Relaxing Your Fears Away” by Wolpe, J. (1961), which describes the systematic desensitization treatment of neuroses, people cannot experience relaxation and fear at the same time. The author stated the theoretical proposition that the reason people get phobias is that they learned a certain behavior sometime in their life and this thing became the fear in their brain.

This brings up the methodology used in the treatment of the patient. There are many possible treatments that are available, including relaxation therapy, cognitive modification, drugs and sedatives, and hypnotherapy. The later of these causes great debates among the psychological community and is denounced by many, yet it is the therapy of choice in the film. Hypnosis, though used by so few psychologists and psychiatrists, seems to be among the top used therapies in movies. Though the process used in this particular film to place the patient in a hypnotic state seems to be more realistic than those used in many other movies, it is still lacking. The process of placing oneself or another person in a hypnotic state is a fairly intense procedure of relaxation.

This procedure, used to alleviate anxiety in adult patients, became one of the best-known and most widely used behavior-modification techniques.

“While biological factors certainly increase the vulnerability to developing fear and phobia, findings have not yet confirmed that these behaviors are controlled by biological mechanisms” (Rofé). Treating and understanding, psychoanalysis, phobias are believed to be a defense mechanism against trauma that might have been brought up as child. It still debated wether phobias are biological or created through life experiences. Due to varied experiments and evaluation, stating phobias derive from young childhood traumas would be untruthful and not factual. In the theory of psychoanalytic fear and phobias are created if the child remembers the experience which have brought

The classical conditioning model was one of the first theories used to describe phobias. Many years ago, scientists observed that one could willingly elicit a fear response in an animal or human through systematic teaching. For example, if every time a rat is presented with a low buzzing noise, it is electrically shocked, eventually, when it hears the noise alone (with no shock), it will exhibit symptoms of fear. (3) Scientists

Fear, an intensive form of anxiety, can be crippling in nature to some people. It is important that we overcome our fears to be able to grow and mature. There are three main ways in which we can manage or resolve fear: behavioral therapy, systematic desensitization, and exposure desensitization. Behavioral therapy was introduced by John B. Watson, a behavioral psychologist, and involved an individual alternating engagements in coping and relaxation techniques to help desensitize that person to the stressors (Seaward, 2015). Systematic desensitization involves the anxious person learning to de-stress from the fear in small, piecemeal increments through which they always feel in control. Exposure desensitization, on the other hand, occurs when the individual is introduced to the real stressor is brief and save encounters with the stressor. Through combinations of the three different ways to

Maren S. Seeking a spotless mind: extinction, deconsolidation, and erasure of fear memory. Neuron. 2011;70(5):830-845.

During the Enlightenment, philosophers were starting to drift away from religion, and many new truths were beginning to be discovered. When these new ideas, or truths, started to make more sense then the certainty of religion, a state of anxiety began to grow within the human mind. As this state of anxiety grew, many anxiety disorders began to sprout and show themselves within humans. These disorders, such as certain phobias, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) began to take over many people’s lives. For many years, doctors have tried using harmful drugs to change the chemicals within the brain, to help relieve anxiety. As truth continues to be discovered, and anxiety continues to rise, therapeutic interventions will be proven to be more efficient in treating anxiety than its counterpart, the dangerous drugs that humans become dependent on.

It is as the result of our mind, that we are able to form mechanisms that can help us abandon the predestined fears ingrained within us, however, with these abilities comes

Hypnosis has been used for a variety of reasons. Two categories it is used a lot in are addiction and phobias. With the use of hypnosis, a person can connect the addiction to something extremely distasteful which in turn makes the person not want to participate in the action anymore. Or hypnotism can change the mindset of a person with an extreme fear so that they no longer associate that fear with the object or action. Three studies were reviewed, a 2007 study on smoking cessation, a 2006 study on dental phobia, and a 2007 study on needle phobia.

Ruby G. expressed how phobias and anxieties had impacted Catherine’s life. Her fears of choking,water, airplanes, the dark and dying had been uncovered. Brian Weiss a psychiatrist helped her find the root to her problems through the practice of hypnosis. “A state of concentration under the instruction of a trained hypnotist a patients body relaxes causing the memory to sharpen” (P,4/17).

As you know there is no specific cure for autism, as well therapeutic guidelines are directed to improve the quality of life for those with ASD by reducing the symptoms and by increasing their functioning. Neurofeedback is direct training of brainwave function, by which the brain learns to function more efficiently. Using a Quantitative Electroencephalogram (qEEG), brain waves are measured, recorded and compared. Feedback is then shown back to the person to help the brain to self-regulate. The method has been developed in neurophysiological labs in scientific institutes in the USA and has been used very successfully for over last 30

The therapist can then help the patient challenge and reconfigure their fear attachment to the event. CBT and Exposure use similar strategies to recall memories. Imaginal Exposure is the most common way for patients to evoke avoidance of trauma related emotions, thoughts, and memories (Wortmann, et al., 2014). As well as “In vivo exposures target behavioral avoidance of people, places, and situations that serve as reminders of the trauma.” (Wortmann, et al., 2014). Patients can then in a safe setting review and interpret these events without the connection of fear and anxiety. Eventually this habituates the connection of fear and anxiety to these events. With a new learned emotional connection to these past events patients see large drop in depression and anxiety.

Some clinicians have reported that patients undergoing aversive treatment utilizing electric shocks have experienced increased anxiety and anxiety-related symptoms that may interfere with the conditioning process as well as lead to decreased acceptance of the treatment. Few clinicians have reported a worrisome increase in hostility among patients receiving aversion therapy, especially those undergoing treatment using chemical aversants. Although aversion therapy has some