Aim. The aim of this study was to asses the effectiveness of classical and self-selected relaxing music in the exposition based treatment of arachnophobia. The authors wanted to check how listening to these two types of relaxing music before exposure to a phobia relevant stimuli (pictures of spiders) influence the arachnophobic women's levels of anxiety. Method. 60 women with arachnophobia (mean age=24.71; SD=4.90) were randomly assigned to one of three, equally sized groups: self-selected music, classical music and the control group. Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (a verified Polish version), Behavioural Avoidance Test, Relaxation Rating Scale and Scale of Anxiety During the Behavioural Avoidance Test were used to measure effectiveness of the exposure based treatment. Results. The results indicate that listening to classical and self-selected relaxing music before exposure to phobic stimuli significantly reduces anxiety symptoms (about 50% of women in music groups showed clinically significant improvement compared with 0% in the control group). Participants in music groups also showed better results on behavioural measures (Behavioural Avoidance Test, Scale of Anxiety During the Behavioural Avoidance Test). They were able to get closer to a real spider and did it with much lower anxiety. The self-selected music appeared to be more effective according to every used measure. Conclusion. Classical and self-selected relaxing music seems to be a simple and useful addition to the exposure based treatment of arachnophobia.