Exposure Therapy
What is Exposure Therapy?
Exposure therapy is a core component of cognitive behavioral therapy and one of the most effective treatments for anxiety disorders. The basic idea is straightforward: by facing the situations, sensations, or thoughts you’ve been avoiding, you learn that you can tolerate anxiety, your feared outcomes are unlikely to occur, and if they do, they’re likely not as catastrophic as you might expect. Exposure therapy can be incredibly empowering, and many clients report gaining a newfound confidence in their ability to do hard things to build the lives they want to live. I have extensive experience using exposure therapy to help clients struggling with social anxiety, panic attacks, agoraphobia, and specific phobias.
What to Expect
- We start by understanding what you’re avoiding and why
- Together we develop a list of exposures tailored to your situation
- You practice approaching these situations at a pace that feels manageable
- For panic disorder, this often includes interoceptive exposure — intentionally bringing on physical sensations like a racing heart to learn they’re not dangerous
- Between sessions, you practice independently to build momentum
Conditions Commonly Treated
Specialized Exposure Approaches
For certain conditions, I use specialized forms of exposure therapy:
- ERP for OCD — Exposure and Response Prevention, the gold standard for obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Prolonged Exposure — A structured protocol for processing traumatic memories in PTSD
- Written Exposure Therapy — A brief, writing-based approach to PTSD treatment