flooding
Last reviewed 01/2018
Flooding is a treatment regimen used in behavioural therapy, used with phobic patients.
In essence this technique is based on the exposure of the patient to the feared object or situation, for example needles, and escape from the situation is prevented until the anxiety level has eventually diminished.
This technique contrasts with Graded Exposure where the phobic patient is gradually exposed to the feared situation or to a series of feared situations in ascending order of difficulty.