Exposure Therapy

Exposure therapy is a therapeutic technique that was created to help people face their fears. When you are scared of something, you tend to avoid it. Although this avoidance might help reduce feelings of fear in the short-term, over time the fear can grow and worsen. Exposure therapy involves exposing the client to the source of the fear (or its context) in a safe environment without the intention to cause any danger. The exposure to the feared situation, object, or activity helps to reduce fear and decrease avoidance. Exposure therapy can be helpful in the treatment of a number of issues, including PTSD, anxiety, OCD, and panic attacks. Think this approach might be right for you? Reach out to one of TherapyDen’s exposure therapy experts today.

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Exposure therapy is a type of psychological treatment that helps individuals confront and overcome their fears or anxieties. The basic idea behind exposure therapy is to gradually expose a person to the source of their fear in a safe and controlled environment. This process is designed to help them build confidence and reduce their emotional response to the feared object or situation. It is effective for treating various anxiety disorders, phobias, PTSD and OCD.

— Carole Goguen, Psy.D., Psychologist in Altadena, CA

Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP) ERP is the primary treatment technique used and is the gold standard for OCD treatment. In ERP, we will guide you in a step-by-step process of exposing yourself to the thoughts and situations that are triggering your distress- without allowing a compulsion to stop the distress. Without the compulsive behaviors you will habituate to the distress and/or train the brain that the distress can be tolerated.

— North Shore OCD Women's Treatment Center, Ltd. Kathi Fine Abitbol, PhD, Clinical Psychologist in Deerfield, IL
 

Fear is a powerful emotion. Since 2019, a specialty of mine has been using Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) to help teens and adults who struggle with anxiety, panic disorder, social phobia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). When you are able to use exposure in a therapeutic way, it becomes a powerful tool to help you break free of fear, and live the life you desire.

— Michelle Henny, Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Orlando, FL

I have several years of experience and training in exposure therapy. I have successfully utilize this approach to support my clientele struggling with fears of vomit, snakes/spiders, socializing with peers, natural distasters, etc. While utilizing this approach, I have found that my clientele finish therapy feeling more confident, capable, and no longer in distress with the once feared stimuli.

— Brooke Rawls, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in Los Angeles, CA
 

Exposure therapy is not all about doing scary things all of the time. It is about the balance of challenging your beliefs and resisting going back to those patterns. We see it as a normal part of the brain to go to safety measures to experience less pain. Experiencing less emotional, physical, or mental anguish, we all want to get away from those. In fact, our brain says it is a true danger to experience these things. Lastly, exposure therapy is nothing without the response prevention.

— Lori Johnson, Licensed Professional Counselor in Lakewood, CO

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) used to treat Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). It involves gradually exposing the patient to the source of their anxiety while encouraging them to resist the urge to engage in compulsive behaviors. This helps the patient to learn to cope with the anxiety and eventually break the patterns of OCD. I usually do ERP in combination with other forms of CBT, such as cognitive restructuring and relaxation.

— Matt Kirby, Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor in Asheville, NC
 

Exposure therapy is considered the most evidence based treatment for anxiety and OCD. I utilize this approach with those experiencing a phobia, generalized anxiety, PTSD, or obsessive thought patterns.

— Sprout Therapy PDX, Licensed Professional Counselor in Portland, OR

Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) that is often used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). ERP involves gradually exposing patients to situations or stimuli that trigger their obsessions, while helping them resist the urge to engage in compulsive behaviors. Over time, this process can help individuals develop greater control over their symptoms and improve their quality of life.

— Kristofer Joondeph-Breidbart, Psychiatrist in Somerville, MA
 

Fear is a powerful emotion. Since 2019, a specialty of mine has been using Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) to help teens and adults who struggle with anxiety, panic disorder, social phobia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). When you are able to use exposure in a therapeutic way, it become a powerful tool to help you break free of fear and live the life you desire.

— Michelle Henny, Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Orlando, FL

I am a behaviorist at heart so I use Prolonged Exposure Therapy and can pull from Exposure & Response Prevention.

— Kate Sayers, Licensed Professional Counselor in Milwaukee, WI
 

In facing our fears, we can learn to actually tolerate once frightening things that governed our lives. Exposure therapy can help you to systematically and hierarchically face what causes you worry, seeing through the process your distress will not only decrease in time without needing to escape or avoid the situation, yet the more you do it the less frightening your fears prove to be.

— Ethan Sapienza, Associate Clinical Social Worker in Beverly Hills, CA

Exposure and Response Prevention is a difficult therapy that is excellent at supporting individuals with OCD to slow the obsession/ compulsion cycle.

— Ruth Conviser, Clinical Social Worker in Philadelphia, PA
 

Using Cognitive Behavior Therapy based interventions, we will develop a treatment plan targeted at addressing your specific needs. I have utilized exposure therapy to address a multitude of concerns for clients related to Anxiety, Depression, OCD, and more.

— Anthony Morton, Licensed Clinical Social Worker - Candidate in Henderson, NV

Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP) ERP is the primary treatment technique used and is the gold standard for OCD treatment. In ERP, we will guide you in a step-by-step process of exposing yourself to the thoughts and situations that are triggering your distress- without allowing a compulsion to stop the distress. Without the compulsive behaviors you will habituate to the distress and/or train the brain that the distress can be tolerated.

— North Shore OCD Women's Treatment Center, Ltd. Kathi Fine Abitbol, PhD, Clinical Psychologist in Deerfield, IL
 

I have over 20 years' experience successfully working with clients using exposure. I have used this approach in treating a wide range of anxiety concerns (e.g., social phobia, panic, health anxiety, claustrophobia) as well as post-traumatic stress. I keep current on developments in exposure therapy through reading, professional conference attendance, and participation in continuing education seminars. I have also published research examining use of exposure in treating post-traumatic stress.

— Christine Scher, Psychologist in Pasadena, CA

Particularly for OCD, Exposure and Response Prevention is the gold standard of care. ERP involves identification and rating fears associated with repetitive thoughts and obsessive behaviors or thoughts to neutralize the fears. Then, systemically and with great care and support, exposure treatment involves graded work on neutralizing the anxiety that arises when approaching rather than avoiding the feared stimulus.

— Tera Lensegrav-Benson, Psychologist in , UT
 

Exposure therapy is a type of psychological treatment that helps individuals confront and overcome their fears or anxieties. The basic idea behind exposure therapy is to gradually expose a person to the source of their fear in a safe and controlled environment. This process is designed to help them build confidence and reduce their emotional response to the feared object or situation. It is effective for treating various anxiety disorders, phobias, PTSD, and OCD.

— Carole Goguen, Psy.D., Psychologist in Altadena, CA