The Zig-Zag Model

Many of the fears and phobias presented in therapy are very deep-rooted, and, because of this, the client is simply unable to see any evidence that would cast doubt on why they feel this way. They have become accustomed to avoiding situations, places, people etc so that they do not have to face that which terrifies them and never give the notion that their fear could be groundless any credence at all. When, however, they can at last begin to envisage alternatives, the ‘yin’ and ‘yang’, or ‘black’ and white’ model, could be a very useful technique to try.

This is also known as the ‘zig-zag’ model because in practice the client is actually zigzagging between the long-standing belief that has resulted in their fear and the new belief. They
are, in effect, doing a comparison exercise where they ask themselves challenging questions, and in so doing give themselves the chance to consider the new alternatives. They begin by making two columns, the first with the positive belief, and the second with the negative belief. They then ask a series of questions, for example, they might put in the first column ‘cats can’t really hurt me’ and in the second ‘what if they can’? They would consider this and maybe say ‘well, there is no evidence of this’ followed by ‘but they are really creepy’. They could then say ‘I don’t like their eyes, no, but I don’t think I need to be scared of them’ followed by ‘what if some of the supernatural stories about cats are true’? They could then say ‘well, I don’t think they are any more, I think only stupid people believe these things’ followed by ‘but you never really know, do you’? This would go on, back and forth, with the client getting used to challenging their own wrongly held belief and hopefully their last entry on the form would be something like ‘I won’t look a cat in the eyes any more, and I won’t be afraid to walk past one because they are most likely harmless’.

If this is the outcome, then the exercise has worked well and the client should have no more trouble with cats. It must be monitored carefully though as some clients could argue themselves into an even stronger wrong conviction than they had before. The counsellor would ask for regular feedback and be able to assess how this particular exercise is suiting the client, both in terms of the severity of their phobia and of their personality. In general terms, it would seem to be a very useful technique for most people to try as it would encourage the client to get into the habit of challenging their fears, and in so doing, also banishing their