a technique used in behavior therapy, usually to reduce or eliminate phobias, in which the client is exposed to stimuli that induce anxiety. The therapist, in discussion with the client, produces a hierarchy of anxiety-invoking events or items relating to the anxiety-producing stimulus or phobia. The client is then exposed to the actual stimuli in the hierarchy, rather than asked simply to imagine them. Success depends on the client overcoming anxiety as the events or items are encountered. Compare covert desensitization. See also systematic desensitization. [first developed by Mary Cover Jones]