Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)

I utilize this technique to help clients gradually confront their fear and anxiety in a controlled manner, reducing distress and increasing resilience.

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy is a highly effective treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). In ERP, individuals confront their obsessive thoughts and resist engaging in their compulsive behaviors. Through repeated exposure to anxiety-provoking situations and prevention of ritualistic responses, ERP helps individuals learn to manage and ultimately reduce their OCD symptoms.

I have extensive experience working with clients of all ages struggling with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). When applying this treatment, I aim to psycho-educate my client and their family (if appropriate) on the nature of OCD. I also work to help my clients understand how facing the feared stimuli as well as resisting the compulsive urge can decrease their anxiety. I have worked with OCD tendencies that present as bedtime rituals, confessions, fear of germs, bathroom tendencies, etc.

In a nutshell, Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) is your savvy coach, guiding you through facing fears and ditching those automatic responses that are impacting your life and seeking therapy. It's a teamwork approach, usually led by a therapist skilled in the art of conquering OCD. So, you expose yourself to the fear, resist the compulsion, and gradually break free from the clutches of OCD. It's like untangling a tricky knot – challenging but entirely doable.

Exposure and response prevention (ERP) focuses on changing unhelpful patterns of behavior that reinforce the cycle of OCD by gradually facing feared situations in a supportive and encouraging setting.

I have significant experience and continued trainings on OCD and usage of Exposure and Response Prevention techniques. This is a collaborative process between me and my clients!

I use ERP to disrupt the obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) cycle. ERP has more scientific evidence behind it than any other approach for OCD and is therefore considered the “gold standard”. Through gradual, systematic real life (in-vivo) and imaginal exposure combined with ritual prevention you too can learn how to reduce your distress and reclaim your life from OCD.

I have specialized training in exposure and response prevention (ERP) for OCD.

My ERP approach is rooted in collaboration and empowerment, guiding clients through gradual exposure to fears while preventing habitual responses. By fostering resilience, mindfulness, and self-compassion within a safe space, we break OCD's cycle, enabling clients to manage anxiety and reclaim control.

I've taken trainings in ERP and I use it quite often with my clients.

I have intensive training in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) through the Cognitive Behavior Institute. I use ERP as the primary modality to treat OCD.

I am trained in both traditional ERP and rumination focused ERP.

Fundamentally this is a therapy that helps us reshape the basic interactions between our thoughts, feelings, and our behaviors. We do this through desensitizing ourselves through graded and safe exposures to help decouple intrusive thoughts from intrusive somatic feelings. When we have thoughts that create hyper-arousal in our nervous system, and then we respond in a safety seeking manner, we are learning that we are not safe, when in fact we are.

Exposure and response prevention is the gold standard in treatment for OCD. Exposure therapy is helpful in treating various fears and anxieties. Through exposure therapy, you can learn to face your fears, thereby reducing related anxiety in the long-term.

The exposure component of ERP refers to practicing confronting the thoughts, images, objects, and situations that make you anxious and/or provoke your obsessions. The response prevention part of ERP refers to making a choice not to do a compulsive behavior once the anxiety or obsessions have been “triggered.”