PHYSICAL THERAPY AS A SUPPORT FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY IN TREATING ALGOPHOBIA - CASE STUDY

Abstract

Along the behavioral and cognitive therapies that do not work always on all of the patients with phobias, today the virtual reality is increasingly used, however less so in Romania. Behavioral and cognitive therapies were used for a patient with algophobia, without any remarkable results, because the patient could not bring himself to imagine the anxiogenic scenes and confront his fears. The psychotherapist called upon the services of physical therapy and over the course of three months, the patient's phobia regressed almost completely from his daily life. In conclusion, physical therapy can be considered, in algophobia cases that are hard to manage through behavioral and cognitive therapies, as a support for psychotherapy.