"Progressive Muscle Relaxation Exercise and Report to the Assignment link in eCampus and discussed in the Main forum. This assignment is directed toward providing additional experiential work by using progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), which is an important technique in behavior therapy either alone or in combination with other techniques (Parrott, 2003). Additionally, it is important to introduce you to a venerable tool for evaluating clinical responses that is frequently used in the field; namely, the Subjective Unit of Distress or SUD developed by Joseph Wolpe (1969). The former is briefly reviewed in the text, but the latter is not. To proceed, you need to do the following:
• To familiarize yourself with the basic ideas, read the following two articles that you can find through the Online University Library:
• McCallie, M. S., Blum, C. M., & Hood, C. J. (2006). Progressive muscle relaxation. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment. 13(3), 51-66.
• Kaplan, D. M., & Smith, T. (1995). A validity study of the Subjective Unit of Discomfort (SUD) score. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development. 27(4), 195-199.
• Next, I want you to experience a PMR session for yourself, as all good clinicians we want to experience (at least in some fashion) those techniques we will be inflicting on, I mean providing to, others. Go to the following website that provides an audio version of a PMR session (they label it PMRT) that you can listen to, download to listen later, and a transcript for review: http://vcc.asu.edu/relax/index.shtml
• CAUTION-PLEASE REVIEW BEFORE PROCEEDING WITH THE EXERCISE: The audio will make a similar disclaimer to the one I will provide here. These are rather benign procedures, but when using them yourself or with someone else, we always need to be careful. This procedure involves tensing and relaxing muscles throughout the body, so one should not use such procedures if you have broken bones, heart problems, or any other medical condition that might be exacerbated by such exercises, unless cleared by a physician. If any of these issues apply to you, please just listen to the audio, but do not engage in the tensing and relaxing components.
• Before listening to the PMR session, please use the Subjective Unit of Distress (or Discomfort) or SUD scale to rate your level of anxiety or tension before starting. You may want to watch Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Silence of the Lambs or similar movie prior to this to get the full experience. Or, just watch the nightly news. Mark your score down using the 0-100 scale.
• Next, listen to the PMR audio session, and proceed with the directions on it, assuming that you have no medical conditions that would contra-indicate its use. At the end, note your level of anxiety or tension using the SUD scale and mark it down.
• There are other sites with audio versions, scripts, etc. that you can find with a simple Google-based search, but the preceding is one of the better ones and from an academic setting.
• Finally, I want you to write a brief paper of 500-750 words (approximately 1½ to 2 pages, not including title page and references) addressing the following points:
• Describe your experience of PMR, including your SUD ratings (pre- and post-PMR).
• Review how you might consider using this procedure in your own life, as well as in your work with others.
• What are your thoughts on the SUD rating? Also, discuss how you would modify it for use with other clinical problems or concerns