Through exposure, these stimuli lose their power and adaptive functioning returns. Special considerations in flooding with human clients around grieving are outlined below. Rationale Flooding is a corrective procedure used when excessive avoidance and escape prevent the griever from prolonged exposure to the feared stimuli, thus maintaining disruption of behavior. In the animal laboratory, flooding can be accomplished rapidly simply by blocking escape in the presence of the aversive stimulus. With humans, flooding requires moderated presentation of aversive events with gradually increasing exposure.
Moderation maintains the cooperation of the patient.
If you continue with that wound unexposed and avoid the cleaning process, the wound can deepen and fester. With unresolved grief it is important to open the wound by exposure to many reminders of the loss. This painful exposure will lead step by step to thorough and healthy healing. Critical to this therapeutic rationale is that it counters accepted theory about loss. Through discussion the therapist helps the griever recall what was special about the lost relationship so that the loss can be more fully appreciated.