Applied tension (AT) is a behavioral intervention for treating blood-injection-injury (BII) phobia, a common phobia with a unique physiological profile. Unlike individuals with other anxiety disorders, including other phobias, individuals with BII phobia can experience fainting at the sight of phobia-relevant stimuli. This can include benign situations, such as seeing a bloody injury on television, to something more problematic, like receiving a necessary medical procedure. As a consequence, treatments for medical conditions that range from routine to life-threatening are often dreaded, [Page 287]endured with extreme distress, or even avoided altogether. Major life decisions can be affected, such as having children or selecting a suitable profession. Clinical researchers have thus devised AT as a treatment that directly targets the presumed underlying physiological causes of the disorder. ...