Evaluating a Self-Help Approach to Helping a Phobic Child: A Profile Analysis

Abstract

This is a report of the practitioner evaluation of clinical social work in afield setting; it involved helping a 9-year-old girl with a severe phobia of dogs. A single-system design is used to evaluate the outcome of contextual therapy, a real-life desensitization approach. An instigative method, self-help training for the child, was directed by a clinical social worker who was not present during the intervention. Treatment appeared to produce a rapid and significant decrease in the child's perception of fear and dog avoidance behavior. A profile analysis of the single-subject data revealed the progressive changes in the whole configuration offears. The methodology is innovative in that both the analysis and the treatment approach combine to capture the complexity of real life while imposing a logical way of measuring change.