Coaching practices for Fear Hierarchy
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Fear Hierarchy, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I’m finally ready to face this fear, but when I picture confronting the whole thing head-on I freeze
- The thing I’m scared of sits in my mind as one giant wall of dread, and just thinking about facing it freezes me
- The fear feels like one solid wall I either climb all at once or not at all, so I keep not at all
- My world has quietly shrunk to almost nothing
- I’m terrified of facing the feelings that set me off, and the whole thing feels like one giant wall I either crash into all at once or run from completely
Practices that may help
- Build a fear hierarchy
List feared situations from mildly anxiety-provoking to most feared, then work up from the bottom.
Exposure Therapy: Facing Fears to Shrink Them - Build an exposure hierarchy
List every feared situation and rank them by distress (0–100) before you do anything else.
The Fear Ladder: Graded Exposure Made Practical - Build an anxiety hierarchy
List feared situations from least to most distressing before any exposure begins.
Counter-Conditioning and Systematic Desensitization - Build an avoidance hierarchy
List the situations, places, people, and thoughts you avoid — ordered from least to most feared.
Prolonged Exposure Therapy: Principles, Practices, and the Evidence - The Fear Ladder: Graded Exposure Made Practical
A fear ladder ranks feared situations from least to most distressing and has you face them in order, from bottom to top. Repeated, systematic exposure to each step without avoidance teaches the brain that the feared situation is survivable, gradually extinguishing the anxiety response. This is one of the best-supported techniques in the anxiety literature. - Build a personal sensation hierarchy
Map which panic sensations frighten you most, then order them from mildest to most feared.
Interoceptive Exposure for Panic - Build an avoidance hierarchy and work through it systematically
List all the situations you avoid because of anxiety, from least to most frightening, then work up the list.
Safety Behavior Fading, Made Practical - Compare the feared risk to risks you already accept
Calibrate a new fear by comparing it to baseline risks you live with without anxiety.
Availability Cascades: How Fears Spread and Inflate - Set realistic expectations before each exposure
Before you enter the situation, write down your feared prediction — then check it against reality afterward.
The Fear Ladder: Graded Exposure Made Practical - Find the actual incidence rate before acting on fear
Look up how often the feared event actually occurs in a relevant population before making decisions around it.
Availability Cascades: How Fears Spread and Inflate
Related concerns
- Fear Hierarchy Anxiety
List feared situations from mildly anxiety-provoking to most feared, then work up from the bottom.
Build a fear hierarchy
- Fear Hierarchy Cbt
List feared situations from mildly anxiety-provoking to most feared, then work up from the bottom.
- Anxiety Hierarchy
List all the situations you avoid because of anxiety, from least to most frightening, then work up the list.
Build an avoidance hierarchy and work through it systematically
- Exposure Hierarchy
List feared situations from mildly anxiety-provoking to most feared, then work up from the bottom.
- Exposure Hierarchy Anxiety
List feared situations from least to most distressing before any exposure begins.
Build an anxiety hierarchy
- Exposure Hierarchy Avoidance
List the situations, places, people, and thoughts you avoid — ordered from least to most feared.
Build an avoidance hierarchy
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.