Investigation on swimming as a form of behavioral therapy in overcoming water phobia

Abstract

Water phobia may be regarded as a specific phobia and people usually developed this during childhood (Milosevic & McCabe, 2015). According to the National Institute of Mental Health, an estimated 19.2 million Americans suffer from specific phobia and one of them is water phobia (Lindberg, 2018). The primary purpose of this study is to investigate if swimming could be utilized as a form of behavioral therapy in overcoming water phobia. Traditional swimming lessons do not address the issues of water phobia (Chan, 2011; Stillwell, 2011) nor is there empirical research as to whether participating in swimming allows one to overcome water phobia. This study would discuss the causes of water phobia, symptoms and how swimming, when used as a behavioral therapy had helped the participants overcame their fear of water. Private semi-structured interviews were carried out with four participants who were recruited for the study. Preceding the private interviews, participants were required to answer a questionnaire to ensure the authenticity of their water phobia. After participating in swimming lessons that accommodated their water phobia, all four managed to overcome it. Based on their input from the interviews, it was found that in-vivo systematic desensitization shows promising results in allowing one to overcome water phobia. Thus, the findings from this paper would give swimming instructors an insight on handling students with water phobia, as well as with the aspiration that more people would overcome their water phobia and ultimately, decreasing the drowning rate and increasing participation rate in water activities.