In treating emotional problems, behavior therapy is an extreme reaction against psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is based on the premise that all human behavior is the end product of an internal struggle between desires or derives, and prohibitions, and that behavior can be improved only when conflicts are revealed, understood, and resolved.
Behavior therapy is concerned with a person’s current behavior, not with internal derives and defenses, past traumas and experiences. It is based on the premise that you can modify problem behavior through a series of behavioral exercises.
 
Behavior therapy is built upon the principle that since your reactions (behavior) to these stimuli are learned, they can also be unlearned. The greatest success of behavior therapy is in the treatment of anxiety disorders, such as phobias, obsessive or irrational fears, which can have far-reaching effects on your life. Take an example. A tough young man, whenever sees a dog, his heart pounds. He breaks into sweat, feels terrified and thinks if he is about to faint or even die. He avoids dogs, even the streets where the dogs usually stay. Soon he sees dogs at various places in the city and avoid going out. This is a situation where a help is required. Behavior therapy can cure phobias.
This type of anxiety disorders afflicts about 15 million Americans. Some of the main components of behavior therapy are relaxation, systematic desensitization and reinforcement. 
While practicing these relaxation techniques the patient is slowly introduced to systematic desensitization. This is the process by which they are slowly exposed to the object they fear, which in this case is the dog. Once relaxed they may begin simply by talking about dogs, or looking at pictures. Then the patient is gradually put in contact with a dog in a controlled, safe environment. This gradual introduction allows the patient to associate the dog with a feeling of relaxation as opposed to fear. Since behavior is governed by repeated patterns of experiences, repeating the pattern of relaxation and exposure to dogs helps reinforce the new, positive behavior. Eventually the person is exposed to a situation that used to make him panic, but now he is able to overcome his anxiety.
Although the aspects of relaxation and systematic desensitization are used with great success in helping people manage their phobias, it is not the only area that behavioral therapy has been instrumental.
The area of reinforcement comprises a major part of behavior therapy but would not necessarily be used in treating deep mental challenges, but rather emotional or "behavioral" ones.
 The reinforcement part of behavioral therapy is more commonly practiced than you may realize. When your child struggles with reading but you want him/her to press on, you offer "positive" reinforcement, encouraging every accomplishment, great or small. When your dog finally sits on command, he is rewarded with a tasty treat. This is how reinforcement is similarly applied in behavioral therapy. It is one of the tools used in "unlearning" negative behaviors and replacing them with positive ones. (It is important to note that negative reinforcement is not used, such as electric shock treatment.)
A study in the Journal of the AMA illustrates another way reinforcement works. When dealing with inconinence in a nursing home, residents that remained dry were given positive reinforcement through special attention and praise. The study stated that involuntary urination was reduced by 26% after 13 weeks.
Behavior therapy has been shown to be effective in treating various disorders that involve a particular isolated problematic behavior, but it is not particularly successful in treating more general problems.