Thought Stopping pg. 127
What is thought stopping?
• Thought stopping refers to a group of procedures used to increase
a person’s ability to block a response sequence cognitively
❖ First began in 1875 to treat a man who was pre-occupied
with thoughts of naked women
❖ It entered behavior therapy after adapted by Joseph
Wolpe for treatment of obsessive and phobic thoughts
What does thought stopping do?
• Thought stopping trains the client to exclude, at the earliest
moment possible, every undesirable thought, usually by invoking
the command “stop” to interrupt unwanted thoughts
o It is successful because
1. The command “stop” serves as a punishment which
will decrease the likelihood that the thought will
