Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP)
Stop letting fear decide what you do.
OCD and anxiety have a way of making your world smaller. You avoid. You check. You seek reassurance. You overthink. You wait until something feels right or until you’re certain it’s safe.
These strategies may help in the moment—but over time, they can keep you stuck.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) helps you change that pattern.
What is ERP?
ERP is a specialized form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and the gold-standard psychological treatment for OCD. Research shows that ERP is effective for many psychological conditions, including anxiety disorders, perfectionism, PTSD, school refusal, and chronic avoidance.
The idea is simple: practice facing the things that make you anxious while learning to respond differently to the anxiety that shows up.
Instead of trying to eliminate every uncomfortable thought, feeling, sensation, or uncertainty, we work together to help you learn new ways to experience emotions —and discover that you can handle them.
Face your fears—without letting them run the show.
Exposure means intentionally practicing the things anxiety tells you to avoid.
That might mean:
Touching something that feels contaminated.
Driving somewhere you’ve been avoiding.
Allowing an intrusive thought to be there.
Experiencing uncomfortable physical sensations.
Making a decision without excessive research.
Taking a meaningful risk without knowing exactly how things will turn out.
The best part about facing your fears with an ERP therapist is that you do not need to do it alone! We won’t just talk about facing your fears. We’ll practice doing it together.
Stop feeding the anxiety cycle.
The other - very important - half of ERP is response prevention—changing what you do when anxiety shows up.
That might mean practicing:
Not checking one more time
Asking for less reassurance
Letting an intrusive thought go unanswered
Resisting a ritual or compulsion
Staying instead of escaping
Making a decision without achieving certainty
Doing something important even though you feel anxious
Over time, you learn something powerful: You don't have to feel certain, comfortable, or fearless before you move forward.
Make your life bigger again.
ERP isn't about getting rid of every anxious thought or feeling. It's about helping anxiety matter less.
I use ERP to help people struggling with OCD, anxiety, phobias, panic, and chronic avoidance take meaningful steps back toward relationships, work, school, travel, independence, and the other parts of life that matter to them.
My approach is active and collaborative. Depending on your goals, we can work through telehealth or take treatment into the real world through community-based exposure work.
The goal isn't to become fearless. It's to become more free.
Is ERP right for me?
If OCD, anxiety, or avoidance is getting in the way of the life you want to live, we can talk about whether ERP may be a good fit.
Let’s team up to start facing your fears and moving toward the life you want.