Aversion Therapy - What is It?
January 27th, 2010 |
Aversion therapy is a method of psychological treatment that employs various behavioural techniques. It can be used for many types of conditions, including, but not limited to, unwanted behaviours, and thoughts. This can also include compulsions and obsessions of varying degrees. Although this type of therapy is typically thought of in terms of quite extreme conditions, it can be used for more minor cases as well. It can be used for smoking cessation, excessive drinking, or even nail biting. As it is possible to create an aversion to almost every kind of thought or action, this can be a good technique for many different types of people.
Aversion therapy essentially consists of creating a negative association with an unwanted thought, feeling, or behaviour. There are a variety of ways to do this. The mildest method of this treatment is probably using hypnosis. This technique has a hypnotherapist make very vivid suggestions of ideas and images to the client regarding their unwanted habits, which are then registered by their subconscious. By doing this, the unpleasant thoughts and feelings relayed by the therapist serve to develop an aversion with the behaviour, causing the patient to have a smaller desire for it.
However, there are also other ways to create an aversion as well. As they sometimes develop naturally if something negative happens while doing or thinking something, aversion therapy can capitalize on this by intentionally creating a negative consequence. For example, if someone eats a certain food and then becomes sick afterwards, they are typically going to avoid that food in the future. Similarly, if someone has an uncomfortable experience while performing the habit they want to stop, they are much more likely to avoid doing it in the future. These negative consequences can range quite a bit in levels of intensity, and, typically, a therapist usually begins with a fairly mild choice, such as an unpleasant hypnotic suggestion, in order to avoid unnecessary discomfort.
As this sort of treatment can be applied to a wide variety of circumstances, it is a good choice for many people. Aversion therapy is also typically a much faster approach than traditional talk therapy. The reason for this is that it focuses solely on reducing or eliminating the unwanted behaviour by creating an aversion. Other forms of therapy usually try to figure out the root cause of the problem. However, while this can be helpful, it can often take years to uncover. Even then, the knowledge gained does not necessarily impact the behaviour as effectively as aversion therapy.
Thomas Inglis Smith is a qualified counsellor, hypnotherapist, NLP practitioner and life coach specialising in addictions. He also produces audio hypnosis recordings. For a free ‘recession busting’ hypnosis download please visit http://www.selfhypnosisdownloads.co.uk
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