What is ERP (Exposure Response Prevention) Therapy?
“Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is a method of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and form of Exposure Therapy in which individuals confront their fears and discontinue their escape response. The American Psychiatric Association recommends ERP as for the treatment of OCD citing that ERP has the richest empirical support.” Excerpt from Wikipedia: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_and_response_prevention)“The Exposure in ERP refers to exposing yourself to the thoughts, images, objects and situations that make you anxious and/or start your obsessions. While 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.” All of this is done under the guidance of a therapist at the beginning — though you will eventually learn to do your own ERP exercises to help manage your symptoms.”Excerpt from International OCD Foundation: ()https://iocdf.org/about-ocd/tratment/erp
How is ERP different from traditional talk therapy (psychotherapy)?
Traditional talk therapy (or psychotherapy) tries to improve a psychological condition by helping the patient gain “insight” into their problems. Talk therapy can be a very valuable treatment for some disorders, but it has not been shown to be effective at treating the active symptoms of OCD.
