Why it works
Avoidance keeps fear alive by never letting it be disproved. Facing it in graded doses teaches the nervous system, through experience rather than argument, that the danger isn't what it predicted.
Technique ·Behavioural
Graded Exposure
Approaching what you fear in small, planned steps — staying long enough each time for the fear to fall on its own.
Helpful for
PhobiasAvoidanceSocial fear
How it's done
Practising it, step by step
A few moves that carry the method — in a therapy room, or in small ways, on your own.
- 1 Build a ladder List feared situations from mildly uncomfortable to terrifying, and rank them.
- 2 Start low Begin near the bottom — a step that's hard but doable.
- 3 Stay until it drops Remain in the situation, without escaping, until the anxiety eases by itself.
- 4 Climb a rung Repeat until it's easy, then move up. Confidence compounds as you go.
Try it yourself
Reflect in the app Name one thing you've been avoiding, break it into five steps, and take the smallest one this week.
Where it lives
Therapies that use it
Who shaped it
The thinkers behind it
Bring it to your own life
Questions in this spirit
A technique is just a method until you turn it inward. Answer one.
Mind +10
What small thing reliably sets off a feeling in you before you've even had time to think?
Childhood +30
Is there a reaction you carry today that was quietly learned from something long ago?
Identity +30
If someone simply watched how you spend your days, what would your actions say you truly value?
From method to habit
Make Graded Exposure a few honest minutes a day.
Psipas turns the simplest of these techniques into a daily ritual — one question, one answer, a picture that grows.