applied tension

a technique in behavior therapy that focuses on changing physiological responses (e.g., low blood pressure leading to fainting) by having the client practice muscle tensing and releasing during exposure to increasingly anxiety-evoking stimuli associated with a feared situation. The technique was developed and is still primarily used for blood, injury, and injection phobias.

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Psychology term of the day

November 23rd 2024

transmuting internalization

in self psychology, significant changes and growth that can occur in a patient during treatment as the empathic failures that he or she experienced in early life are recognized and acknowledged by the therapist or analyst. [first described by Austrian-born U.S. psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut (1913–1981)]