Orpington College

SCARED OF SPIDERS?

Students from GCSE, AS and A Level Psychology at Orpington College all got together to for a morning of phobia-curing. 

As part of the syllabus, students learn about phobias and the ways to treat them. Instead of just telling students about the methods to cure phobias, staff decided to take a different approach as they asked someone from London Zoo to pay a visit to the college. 

Armed with a variety of spiders, from Money Spiders to Tarantulas, John Clifford from the Friendly Spider Programme spent a morning demonstrating how they help to cure people of their Arachnophobia. 

He used psychological techniques to de-condition the phobia of spiders, combining the method of cognitive behavioural therapy and hypnosis. This involves exposing people to the fear, then using hypnotic techniques to relax them. 

It was also an opportunity for GCSE students to interact with A Level students, asking questions about the higher level course and what they could expect if they chose it. 

The day was concluded with a quiz, which included a round testing students on everything they had learned during the day, with prizes awarded to the winners.  

Not only did students learn information relevant to their exams interactively – but some even had their lifelong fear of spiders cured!