​Dr. Kumar, a clinical psychologist, usually offers deep relaxation to his phobic patients. Further, he guides them to categorize their apprehensions from least to most anxiety-provoking ones. Finally, he gradually unfolds the fear one by one and helps the patients gain control of their worries. His therapeutic approach is best known as:

Correct option is C

● 1. Systematic desensitization is a therapeutic approach used to help individuals manage phobias and anxiety. It involves a combination of relaxation techniques and gradual exposure to anxiety-provoking stimuli.
● 2. The process includes creating a hierarchy of fears, starting from the least anxiety-provoking situation and gradually working up to more intense exposures. This allows patients to confront their fears in a controlled and systematic way.
​
Information Booster
● 1. Relaxation: Relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing or progressive muscle relaxation, help reduce anxiety before exposure.
● 2. Hierarchy of Fears: Patients are taught to confront their fears gradually, starting with the least distressing and building up to more challenging situations.
● 3. Effective for Phobias: Systematic desensitization has been found to be effective for treating a wide range of phobias, from fear of flying to social anxiety.
● 4. Conditioning: This therapy is based on classical conditioning principles, where the patient learns to associate the feared object or situation with relaxation rather than anxiety.

Additional Information
● (A) Aversion therapy: Aversion therapy involves pairing a negative stimulus with an undesirable behavior (e.g., pairing alcohol with an unpleasant drug to treat alcoholism).
● (B) Flooding: Flooding is an exposure therapy where the patient is exposed to the most anxiety-provoking stimulus immediately, rather than gradually. This is a more intense form of exposure therapy and differs from systematic desensitization.