Counselling Therapy for Acrophobia: A Detailed Analysis

This essay delves into the application of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as a primary therapeutic approach for treating acrophobia, the fear of heights. The discussion begins with an introduction to phobias and a definition of acrophobia, highlighting its impact on an individual's life and its relation to other related conditions. The essay then explores the physiological and psychological aspects of acrophobia, explaining how CBT, including techniques such as virtual reality therapy, can be used to address the fear. The background section traces the origins and principles of CBT, emphasizing its focus on present reality and its six phases of treatment. The essay also examines the strengths and weaknesses of CBT, acknowledging its effectiveness while also pointing out its limitations. Furthermore, the essay considers the application of CBT in a multicultural context, emphasizing the importance of culturally competent communication and adaptation. In conclusion, the essay asserts the efficacy of CBT in managing acrophobia, summarizing the discussed psychological, emotional, and cultural aspects. References to supporting literature are also provided.

Running Head: Counselling
Psychology
Name of the student
Name of the university
Authors Notes

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Background............................................................................................................................3
Strength and weakness...........................................................................................................5
Application of therapy in multicultural context.....................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Overwhelming and debilitating fear which is pronounced to an individual with a
deeper impact is known as phobia. Acrophobia can be defined as the fear of heights. The
phobia is not specific to any particular criteria of distance (Herrmann et al., 2017). The
phobia is related to the fear of being distant from the ground. A person with acrophobia might
feel fear of being on a high floor of a building or even during climb a ladder. The acrophobia
can limit the activities of someone’s life due to some unknown imaginative fear. This phobia
is related to vertigo ,bathmopodia and aerophobia which can have impact on daily life of
the affected person .Acrophobia can be treated with cognitive behavioural therapy, rational
emotive behaviour therapy and virtual reality therapy with the help of psychotherapy
professionals. The essay is based on the importance of counselling therapy and key concepts
related to counselling will be analysed with respect to effect of multicultural context.
Discussion
Human balance system integrates the effects of proprioceptive, vestibular and visual
cues to realise position and motion of a person (Ghai, Nardone & Schieppati, 2019). The
balance gets disrupted with the increasing height as the equilibrium of senses does not
function properly in the higher altitude. Locomotion in the elevated heights needs more active
visual processing in every human being. The visual cortex of affected people get overloaded
and as a result the person become confused (Britton & Arshad, 2019). The acrophobic people
can be emotionally and physically affected by the fear of heights. As a result, tendencies of
anxiety and avoidance can be observed in the affected person. To treat the phobia,
psychotherapy, exposure and medications with relaxations will be given to the affected
people. In psychotherapy, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is one of the most prevalent

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treatment therapy which will be applied to treat phobias ( Donker, Van Esveld, Fischer &
Van Straten, 2018).
Background
In 1960, Dr Aaron T. Beck, a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania, first
pioneered Cognitive Behavioural therapy during psychoanalysis (Wright, Brown, Thase &
Basco,2017). . CBT has different principles which are related to resolve the problems of
patients and affected by focusing on goal oriented problem solving (DeRubeis, Keefe &
Beck, 2019). This therapy mainly emphasises on present reality of the patient and helps them
to understand the depth of concepts related to their fears. CBT mainly consists with multiple
time limited sessions which help the patients to identify, evaluate and to respond to the
dysfunctional thoughts and beliefs. The therapy has six phase during the treatment of the
patient such as assessment, reconceptualization, acquisition of skills, consolidation and
application of training, maintenance and generalisation, assessment after the treatment with
follow-ups. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is based on the relationship of cognition, behaviour
and emotion of the patients. CBT is based on the philosophical tradition of Stoicism as the
stoic philosophers were against of false beliefs which can lead to the destructive emotions.
The destructive emotions are addressed by modern psychologists as depression and cognitive
distortion. The therapy can help in changing the fear inducing factors in the patient with
different thinking patterns. The therapy helps a person to change his or her chain of responses
for certain incidences. This will help to identify proper thoughts by replacing them with
positive and constructive thought patterns. As a result, the behaviour of the person would be
changed with the help therapy. The cognitive behavioural therapy is influenced by
behaviourism and mentalism but the latter one has more impact as the former one lost its
popularity during cognitive revolution (Kramer, Bernstein & Phares, 2019). The treatment
consists of both cognitive and behavioural treatment techniques and due to the behavioural

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and technical collaboration third wave of CBT has been evolved. The third wave of CBT is
most prominent therapies where dialectical therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy
are considered as most prevalent therapies. Systematic desensitization is used to treat the
person with different phobias by suggesting them to think of feeling of fearful phobias and
helps the patient by relaxation. The subconscious mind of the patient is relaxed and diverted
from its natural ways of responses to the stimulus of related fear by implementing the CBT to
the patients(Corey, 2015).. There are different associated therapies such as stress inoculation,
exposure therapy, cognitive processing therapy, relaxation training and dialectical behaviour
therapy with acceptance and commitment therapy. CBT helps to reduce the fearfulness, inner
agitation, palpitation, trembling and sudden sweating after reaching a height which is
elevated than the lowest possible resting point of the body (Strauss, Kivity & Huppert, 2019).
Main therapeutic goals of CBT in treating a patient with acrophobia is to assess the
irrationality and dysfunctional spatial perception of the patient. The CBT has been given in
collaboration with the virtual reality therapy for conditioning the human mind with different
circumstances and feelings (Donker et al., 2019). The fear of falling can be controlled by
giving a virtual reality training where mind of a patient is conditioned with the fear and
rationalise the misconceptions related to fear. According to a study acrophobia can be
prevented by facing heights with the assistance of the professionals. As a result the person
may feel satisfied after resolving psychological and perceptual problems. To resolve the
complications related to emotional responses, physiological responses and social conflicts,
CBT is given to the acrophobic people. The misconceptions related to acrophobia are some
prevalent barriers in successful intervention of CBT. Therapists conduct several sessions for
managing the emotional responses such as anxiety, stress and fear by taking help of virtual
reality and pictorial representations (Menelas, Haidon, Ecrepont & Girard, 2018). Sickness
and rapid breathing are some prominent physiological responses which are related to the

5Psychology
acrophobia(Robertson, 2019). The physiological responses can be regulated by the
psychologists by suggesting medications. While Acrophobia is treated in the context of
anxiety and depression, panic attacks, agoraphobic fear, obsessive compulsive symptoms
are observed in the patient. The patient must be treated for resolving above discussed
symptoms with hypochondriac fear and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Controlling the
comorbidity of the condition are one of the prevalent therapeutic goals of CBT as
regulating the factors can prevent the chronic course of any disorders in patients(Torres et
al., 2020).
Strength and weakness
CBT can be as effective as medications for the treatment of depression and mental
illness associated with different psychological disorders. CBT can be given to the patient by
different short sessions and talking therapies. There are different high structured therapies
which are included with different formats such as self-help books and computer programs.
Skills which can be learned during CBT can help the person to combat with different
situation of his or her life. The skills which are associated with CBT can be helpful for better
practice of mindfulness with reconceptualization of the perceptions. CBT will help to control
the fear and related physiological disorders (Corey, 2015). On the contrary, CBT has some
limitations in treating the patients with phobias. Therapists only can suggest the interventions
but implementation is depended on the patients’ will and mentality. The patients must be
committed to the interventions and attend every sessions. CBT will focus on the current
problem and does not address any underlying issues of patient (Carter et al., 2018). However,
CBT focuses only on the personal issue to change the condition of the patient. The therapy
does not address sociological and environmental issues for the patient’s condition.

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Application of therapy in multicultural context
Therapist should communicate with the patient by the help of culturally competent
language and should maintain the respectful body language. The therapists can follow the
[principle related to cultural adaptation diamond such as “assessment of current worry and
security issue”, “using the local recovery techniques with the reference of ethno
psychology”, “acceptability and positive expectancy’’, “using the local idioms of distress
and catastrophic cognition”( Basham et al.,2016). Therapists will help the patient by giving
education to reduce superstitious beliefs among them. Catastrophic cognitions are some of
the most prevalent causes for different phobias among the communities and cultures. After
effect of the trauma is another major issues in different cultures and communities as false
belief and superstitions affect the psychological wellbeing of the individual (Burrell, 2019).
The psycho-social and psycho-cultural beliefs also affect the mental health of the patient. For
example, many people confuse the condition of the vertigo with acrophobia which are not
same. Moreover vertigo is associated condition of acrophobia but not all acrophobic
syndromes are vertigo. Therapist builds trust and dependency with the client to maintain
psychological health of the patient.
Conclusion
The essay concludes that acrophobia and most effective therapy to prevent the phobia
in the patients. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is regarded as most appropriate therapy for
treating the patient with acrophobia. In this essay, strengths and weakness have been
addressed and the effectiveness of CBT in the culturally competent treatment has also been
discussed. Psychological and emotional aspects have been discussed in the essay with the
reference of applicability of CBT in preventing an individual from cultural beliefs which can
resulted as life limiting conditions.

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