And when I read that blog post it eventually made sense…

If the fear connection is particularly strong (as in e.g. phobia), a technique called double dissociation can be used to avoid retraumatization during the inspection of the fear memory/event.

These techniques make more use of the client’s own resources, and may thus be perceived as more empowering (and likely more gentle) than a purely conditioning based approach.

Treatment Outcome Research
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic and debilitating condition, with a lifetime prevalence rate of 35.6% for woman who have experienced criminal victimization (Resnick et al. 1993). Thus, the development of efficacious and cost-effective treatments for PTSD becomes imperative. Both prolonged exposure therapy and sertraline (Zoloft) are of established efficacy for PTSD. Yet, we do not know whether these efficacy studies have external validity nor what factors influence treatment acceptance/refusal and completion/drop-out.

Results of several controlled studies have shown it significantly reduce PTSD and other symptoms such as anxiety and depression, particularly in women following sexual and non-sexual assault (Foa et al., 1991; Foa et al., 1999)