Behavioral Approaches To Health Problems
Health psychology, or behavioral medicine, is a specialty area of psychology dedicated to promoting a philosophy of health through the application of a variety of self-initiated activities and techniques. Use is made of behavioral and biomedical knowledge for the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of illness and dysfunction.
Some of the areas in which behavioral medicine interventions have proven useful include: obesity, smoking, stress, hypertension, headaches, insomnia, chronic pain, asthma, peripheral vascular disease, coronary prone behavioral, gastrointestinal disorders, arthritis, diabetes, exercise compliance, and cancer. Behavioral medicine intervention in many of the above areas requires that the psychologist's efforts be coordinated with the efforts of the physician and other health care providers.
How do I find someone to help me with behavioral approaches to health problems?
In general, psychologists trained in health psychology and behavioral medicine can be located in the yellow pages under psychologists or by contacting local or state psychological associations.
While behavior therapy has achieved a reputation for effectiveness in treating anxiety disorders, most practical therapists have learned how to combine behavioral techniques with other approaches. Systematic desensitization, the standard behavioral treatment for phobias, involves applying relaxation skills to feared situations. The client learns to relax, and then tries to maintain a relaxed state while imagining anxiety-provoking situations. Influenced by hypnosis, many therapists are finding that images of competence or of being loved by kind caretakers may be more effective than a relaxed state in countering anxiety for some phobias.
Another effective imagery technique is imaginal exposure, in which anxious clients are guided to vividly face intense feelings or situations that have triggered their fear of losing control. An obsessive-compulsive might be led through a prolonged session imagining being harshly criticized for making a mistake. Surviving this type of session can lead clients to gain comfort with feelings (such as anger) that they have feared. Adding elements of gestalt therapy and psychodrama, an imaginal exposure session can flow naturally into an opportunity for anxious clients to express long-denied or avoid emotions.
To be completely successful, any treatment of an anxiety disorder must include in vivo exposure. Agoraphobics who have feared highway driving must drive previously avoided roads before they'll feel sure that they have overcome their problem. For the obsessive-compulsive who has had to shower for hours before feeling clean enough to go out, treatment must include brief showers followed by normal socializing and activity. Therapists have discovered that in vivo behavioral techniques may lead previously “resistant” clients to develop greater insight into the psychological roots of their problems. An example is the agoraphobic client who after being pushed to drive outside their neighborhood for the first time in years, can sit in the car and clearly recall how she learned in childhood to stay home and protect her mother from an abusive father.
Clients presenting severe anxiety disorders have often lived restricted lives for years before coming to a therapist. While behavioral or experimental techniques may dislodge the phobia or compulsive habit relatively quickly, the client may still be left with lingering problems such as depression or the need for families to reorganize to fit the client's new competence. These problems can require a great deal of patience and time for a therapist and client.
Some of the areas in which behavioral medicine interventions have proven useful include: obesity, smoking, stress, hypertension, headaches, insomnia, chronic pain, asthma, peripheral vascular disease, coronary prone behavioral, gastrointestinal disorders, arthritis, diabetes, exercise compliance, and cancer. Behavioral medicine intervention in many of the above areas requires that the psychologist's efforts be coordinated with the efforts of the physician and other health care providers.
How do I find someone to help me with behavioral approaches to health problems?
In general, psychologists trained in health psychology and behavioral medicine can be located in the yellow pages under psychologists or by contacting local or state psychological associations.
While behavior therapy has achieved a reputation for effectiveness in treating anxiety disorders, most practical therapists have learned how to combine behavioral techniques with other approaches. Systematic desensitization, the standard behavioral treatment for phobias, involves applying relaxation skills to feared situations. The client learns to relax, and then tries to maintain a relaxed state while imagining anxiety-provoking situations. Influenced by hypnosis, many therapists are finding that images of competence or of being loved by kind caretakers may be more effective than a relaxed state in countering anxiety for some phobias.
Another effective imagery technique is imaginal exposure, in which anxious clients are guided to vividly face intense feelings or situations that have triggered their fear of losing control. An obsessive-compulsive might be led through a prolonged session imagining being harshly criticized for making a mistake. Surviving this type of session can lead clients to gain comfort with feelings (such as anger) that they have feared. Adding elements of gestalt therapy and psychodrama, an imaginal exposure session can flow naturally into an opportunity for anxious clients to express long-denied or avoid emotions.
To be completely successful, any treatment of an anxiety disorder must include in vivo exposure. Agoraphobics who have feared highway driving must drive previously avoided roads before they'll feel sure that they have overcome their problem. For the obsessive-compulsive who has had to shower for hours before feeling clean enough to go out, treatment must include brief showers followed by normal socializing and activity. Therapists have discovered that in vivo behavioral techniques may lead previously “resistant” clients to develop greater insight into the psychological roots of their problems. An example is the agoraphobic client who after being pushed to drive outside their neighborhood for the first time in years, can sit in the car and clearly recall how she learned in childhood to stay home and protect her mother from an abusive father.
Clients presenting severe anxiety disorders have often lived restricted lives for years before coming to a therapist. While behavioral or experimental techniques may dislodge the phobia or compulsive habit relatively quickly, the client may still be left with lingering problems such as depression or the need for families to reorganize to fit the client's new competence. These problems can require a great deal of patience and time for a therapist and client.