Behavioural Therapy

Behavioural therapy focuses on human behaviour and aims to eliminate maladaptive or unwanted behaviours, including addictions, anxiety, phobias, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Behaviour therapists believe that behaviour is learned and can, therefore, be unlearned. In addition to examining the behaviour itself, a behavioural therapist will explore the thoughts and emotions that contribute to or result from the behaviour to gain a deeper understanding of your experience.

Behaviour therapy is an action-based therapy aiming to foster positive behaviour change through applied behaviour analysis, cognitive behavioural therapy, and social learning theory. Behavioural therapists will typically use the principles of both operant and classical conditioning during therapy.

Classical conditioning encompasses various methods, such as:

• Flooding: exposure to feared objects or situations
• Systematic desensitisation: a gradual version of flooding
• Aversion therapy: pairing undesirable behaviours with some form of aversion stimulus to reduce the unwanted behaviour.

Operant conditioning employs strategies like positive reinforcement, punishment, and modelling to help modify behaviour. Some of these strategies include:

• Token economies: tokens that can be exchanged for privileges or desired items, this is common in parenting and teaching
• Contingency management: a written contract between you and your therapist outlining goals, rewards, and penalties – this increases a sense of accountability
• Modelling: learning through observing and imitation of others
• Extinction: removing any type of reinforcement to behaviour

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