What Is Flooding Therapy: How Effective It Is & Benefits

Psychologist Thomas Stampfl first introduced the concept of flood therapy in 1967. This therapy has originated from the roots of exposure therapy and classical conditioning techniques. These procedures revolve around the idea that if a person is exposed to a specific kind of fear, they will ultimately perceive the situation or the item as less frightening.

Continue reading to find more interesting facts on this variant of exposure therapy.

Flooding or implosion therapy is one of the psychotherapeutic processes where professionals expose individuals to intense fear in real-time. This therapy is also performed with images, props and sometimes virtual reality. If you are taking this therapy, you must know it is your duty to use calming techniques during this process. This is because your therapist will do nothing to reduce those fears.

This therapy works in a way that it exhausts your fight or flight instinct so your brain can recognise that nothing wrong has happened. The main aim of flooding therapy in psychology is to prepare your mind. So, when encountering an object or situation that triggers fear, you do not react severely.

Flood therapy treats several psychiatric conditions. Unfortunately, there are instances when individuals may not get completely cured by this procedure. However, it can significantly reduce the incapacitating responses that one exhibits when triggered.

Below is a list of conditions from which we can infer who might need flooding therapy:

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Chronic Anxiety
• Phobias
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Similar to other kinds of exposure therapy, the flooding technique also works when a situation is created to allow people to confront them. There are three ways in which experts create these scenarios:

• In vivo Exposure: This involves exposure to real-life scenarios and or objects
• Imaginal Exposure: It is when a therapist asks to imagine a certain environment
• Exposure via Virtual Reality: Here, individuals experience life-like scenarios created by imagination and VR technology

If you are wondering how this therapeutic procedure is carried out, check the below examples on flooding therapy.

• Letting a person who is afraid of snakes stay in a room with a snake
• Making a person with social anxiety attend a reception or in a social situation
• Keeping someone with claustrophobia in a crowded room for an extended period
• Asking individuals who fear flying is made to take long flights

Flooding and implosive therapy has been proven helpful in treating many with psychiatric disorders. It has successfully cured individuals struggling to complete regular activities whilst feeling endangered. 

Following are certain areas where this therapy can help you:

• Traumatising experience: Innumerable people identify their fears as PTSD. This can happen due to any traumatic event like an assault, abuse, witnessing a crime or an accident. People with PTSD often experience disturbing thoughts, hopelessness, etc. Those who seek help to overcome this situation are often advised flood therapy.
• Having a phobia: Anyone can have a phobia and can have varied sources. After analysing the kind of phobia, therapists decide which behavioural therapy would be suitable. In most cases, they create real scenarios and ask the affected person to be a part of them. So they can learn their fear is unsubstantiated.
• Compulsive behavioural tendencies: Those identified with clinical OCD display ritualistic habits. The most common kind is when individuals find germs, dirt, etc. as their triggers. Flooding helps these people immerse themselves in situations that would nudge their fear. This eventually helps their brain teach them not to get involved in these repetitive behavioural activities.

Based on our discourse on flood therapy, we have understood how this therapy works on different individuals. Let’s now move on to some of the prominent benefits of this therapy.

• Adapting to the environment: For some, the sights and sounds of certain objects can make them feel endangered. Hence, when these people are exposed to the stimuli gradually, they get used to the situation.
• Having control over overreactions: In most cases, people have anxiety attacks when they feel powerless. Continuing this therapy will teach you that you can control your thoughts. This will have a proportional effect on your physical reactions as well.
• Alleviating fear: This therapy also weakens fear-provoking instances, thus resulting in relieving those who are constantly living in fear. Flooding therapy helps your mind identify and react to fearful stimuli in a calmer manner.
• Improving behaviour: People with compulsive habits and weak social skills are seen to improve when they go through flooding behaviour therapy. This primarily happens because you train your brain in a certain manner to avoid any alarming episode.
• Controlling anxiety: As you constantly face the stimuli during therapy sessions, you become less sensitive. This ultimately helps you in controlling your anxiety disorder. Furthermore, the ways of managing your apprehension also help you learn how to stay calm.

As per research, three out of four patients are now treated with flooding of implosive therapy. Individuals going through mental disorders become symptom-free after at least 14 sessions. This remains the same if they are regular with their follow-up sessions for the next six and half months.

People who have been dealing with constant fear and are unable to find any cure to it seek therapeutic assistance. Here is a step-by-step guide that a licensed therapist follows to treat one with the help of flooding therapy:

Step 1: Professionals conduct a preliminary consultation to analyse the condition of each person.

Step 2: Once they have analysed what kind of disorder it is, they narrow down its treatment procedures.

Step 3: Depending on the person’s condition, a therapist would channel their therapy. For example, someone with PTSD may be asked to imagine a scenario that triggers their syndrome.

Step 4: Before using any flood therapy techniques, experts will educate their patients regarding this process. This will include how they can control their emotions and reactions when they encounter fear.

Exposing oneself to their fear in a guided manner takes some time. Nevertheless, it depends on the patient’s current state of mind. In most cases, the session lasts for 2-3 hours. However, the duration may vary depending on your condition.

You may have to consider the following things while opting for a flooding therapy:

• Even though flooding therapy is effective, it may not suit everybody 
• Not all therapists use this variant of exposure therapy to treat psychiatric conditions. Hence, if you are seeking help to recover from any mental condition, you should be open to treatment options
• In some instances, your condition may also need medicinal assistance along with therapies. Therefore, before choosing any particular form of clinical aid, you need to consult a general physician and follow their recommendations

To wrap up, we can jot down the key pointers we have discussed so far. To begin with, flood therapy is a type of exposure therapy. In this particular process, instead of slowly breaking one’s fear or phobia, therapists uncover the fear triggers all at once. This way, they condition the brain to adapt to the scenario and reduce sensitive reactions.