Psycho-education is one of many components of mental health therapy. It consists of providing the client with up-to-date, factually accurate information on his condition. Psycho-education can be extremely helpful in treating phobias, as many phobia sufferers have incorrect beliefs about their object of fear as well as a basic misunderstanding of how phobias work. Psycho-education is generally used in tandem with other treatment techniques as part of a multi-pronged approach to solving the problem.
Although psycho-education is generally considered a good thing, it is important not to fall victim to what some people refer to as "Google syndrome." Surfing the Internet for information without validating the source may lead to inaccurate results at best. At worse, it may put you at risk for cyberchondria, a condition similar to medical student's disease in which reading up on diseases causes you to develop symptoms of those diseases.
