PHOBIA EXPOSURE PLANS

NOTE - Make sure that the animal is tame, and where possible, that the animal's owner has read the "Phobia friend" section in Chapter 7 of the book, Fix Your Phobia in 90 Minutes .

For phobias of insects such as coach-roaches, bees, wasps, stick insects etc, use the spider phobia exposure plan below:

Spider phobia exposure plan

Step	Situation	Fear Scale Rating
1	Look at a photo of a spider	5
2	Touch the photo of the spider	6
3	Watch movie footage of a spider	7
4	Touch a rubber spider	7 ½
5	Touch a dead spider	8
6	Be in the room with a non-venomous spider that is contained in a jar	9
7	Capture a live, non-venomous spider and release it outside	10

Snake phobia exposure plan

Step	Situation	Fear Scale Rating
1	Look at a photo of a snake	5
2	Touch the photo of the snake	6
3	Watch movie footage of a snake	7
4	Touch a rubber snake	7 ½
5	Touch a dead snake	8
6	Be in the room with a non-venomous snake e.g. python, that is contained in an enclosure	9
7	Touch and/or hold the python with the assistance of the python's owner.	10

Bird phobia exposure plan

Step	Situation	Fear Scale Rating
1	Look at a photo of a bird	5
2	Touch the photo of the bird	6
3	Watch movie footage of a bird	7
4	Touch a bird feather (this may come before the photo depending on the phobic person)	7 ½
5	Touch a taxidermy (stuffed) bird	8
6	Be in the room with a caged bird	9
7	Feed tame birds at a zoo or a person's place who owns such birds e.g. chooks	10

Dog phobia exposure plan

Step	Situation	Fear Scale Rating
1	Look at a photo of a dog	5
2	Touch the photo of the dog	6
3	Watch movie footage of a dog	7
4	From a distance watch a tame dog behind a fence	7 ½
5	Walk up close to the fence	8
6	Be in the room with a dog controlled on a lead	9
7	Walk closer to the dog and eventually pat it while it still being on a lead and controlled by its owner	10

Balloon phobia exposure plan

Step	Situation	Fear Scale Rating
1	Look at a photo of a balloon	5
2	Look at a balloon that hasn't been inflated	6
3	Touch the uninflated balloon	7
4	Be in the room with a half inflated balloon	7 ½
5	Walk closer to the balloon	8
6	Touch the inflated balloon	9
7	With a needle, pop the inflated balloon (repeat step 7 at least five times).	10

Note - it can help to use balloons that have already been filled with air for a day or so as the balloon will lose a lot of it's elasticity and wont be as firm. This makes the balloon both more difficult to burst and less loud when it does.

Vomit phobia

Step	Situation	Fear Scale Rating
1	Look at a fake rubber vomit (novelty shops sell them)	5
2	Touch the fake vomit	6
3	Listen to audio material of a person being sick	7
4	Visualise yourself being exposed to a situation where someone is sick whilst listening to the audio (it's best if your phobia friend can talk you through the imagined situation)	7 ½
5	See video footage of someone vomiting without the sound turned on	8
6	See the same video footage, but with the sound turned on.	9

NOTE - it may also be a certain situation that the you are avoiding for fear of vomiting or seeing others vomit e.g. roller coaster rides, pubs + clubs, car trips etc. Therefore facing this situation can be part of the exposure plan. Design your plan to suit your phobia's triggers.