Re:Maxfield & Hyer meta-analysis: A few questions

I have to quibble a bit about your characterization of exposure therapy as dealing with "snapshots." While this would certainly be true for systematic desensitization, it does NOT represent the only way to do exposure. Indeed, there is nothing static or "snapshot" in the Foa approach to exposure, where people repeatedly imagine the trauma, from beginning to end for the first several exposure sessions, and then switches to a focus smaller segements that are particularly distressing ("hot spots") which are repeatedly confronted one at a time. In the last session or two, the whole memeory is then put back together.

Now, what I have described is a "typical" case, and there certainly are deviations from this pattern. Also, let me be clear, I'm not claiming to know this is the "best" way to do exposure. There is no relevant research on different approaches to exposure in PTSD. Earlier studies using phobias to compare systematic desensitization with implosion with flooding provide little conclusive evidence for superiority of one approach over another. I'm simply responding to what seems to be an inaccurate or at least incomplete description of how exposure therapy is conducted.

By the way, Ian says "Hello." Peter did not attend AABT this year, so I didn't see him.

Replies:

Re:Maxfield & Hyer meta-analysis: A few questions, by Cahill, 11/20/02

| Behavior OnLine Home Page | Disclaimer |

Copyright © 1996-2004 Behavior OnLine, Inc. All rights reserved.