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Implosive therapy

a method for extinguishing anxiety by a saturation exposure to the feared stimulus situation or its substitute.

therapy usually consists of in first having the client imagine an anxiety producing scene and realize that, although unpleasant, the anxiety is not unbearable. Then the client is given a sequence of high anxiety scenes to imagine, often in order of increasing anxiety, hence a hierarchy to some degree. This treatment, generally accompanied by strong emotional reactions of the client, is continued over a few treatment sessions until the anxiety is assessed to have extinguished.