What exposure
therapy is
What the treatment involves, what it does not, and how to find a clinician trained to deliver it.
You approach what you have been avoiding, on purpose, in a planned order, without safety and avoidance behaviors. This gives the brain a chance to learn from the exposure and adjust.
It is the front-line treatment for OCD, panic, phobias, social anxiety and health anxiety — and it is chronically hard to find, because relatively few clinicians are trained to deliver it faithfully.
The four things that make it exposure
Step-by-step. No tricks, traps, or surprises.
You and your therapist will work together to create a recovery plan.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
Doing exposure correctly is a skill. And like any skill, it takes practice to do well. Your therapist can help you practice the correct way, and with repetition, you will take your life back.
Response prevention
Anxiety is often maintained by avoidance and safety behaviors. Exposure is therefor oftentimes about identifying and eliminating these behaviors.
In Between Sessions
Research shows that the more you practice exposure, the more effective it is. Finding opportunities to practice daily is a great way to make steady progress toward recovery.
What a course of it looks like
Assessment for a session or two, then a hierarchy built together, then climbing it — in session and, mostly, as homework between sessions. Most courses run three to five months. If you want the week-by-week version, the first six weeks is written out in full.
Conditions it treats
Finding someone who does it
This is the hard part, and it is why this directory exists. The short version: ask what the top of your hierarchy would look like, ask what you will be doing between sessions, and ask what happens when you ask for reassurance. The long version is eight questions and the answers to listen for.