Episode 6: Erp, do's and dont's, and practical therapy tips

Convinced you'll be the one person who does Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) wrong? This one's for you. Jess Hayes and Laura Mole walk through how ERP actually works — who picks the exposures, how scary they need to be, and why you genuinely cannot fail — plus what happens when therapy ends.

Exposure and Response Prevention is all about exposing yourself to your OCD fears (exposure) and then making active choices in not engaging in compulsions and avoidance (response prevention) to challenge the OCD, and it is often referred to as the 'gold standard' of OCD treatment. This episode explores why it can be a helpful approach, and future episodes will discuss some alternatives.

Podcast by

Laura Mole, Adv. Dip, MBACP OCD specialist therapist

and

Jessica Hayes, Msc PGDip, BABCP Accred OCD and perinatal specialist therapist

Edited by Christian Nickson

Time stamps:

02:00 Brain spam

05:20 OCD brains need to obsess

07:20 Compassionate other voices

09:20 Erp as the gold standard, what is it?

10:45 Amygdala, the brain, and the threat response

15:44 How erp fits into cognitive behavioural therapy

18:40 Which cbt treatments are unhelpful for OCD

21:45 Brody and their contamination OCD

24:20 How might erp look like for Brody?

26:30 What we don't do with erp

27:10 Do you have to immediately do exposures?

27:30 Who picks the exposures?

28:30 You are in control and what to do if you aren't ready?

29:28 You can't fail your erp

31:15 How scary should exposures be? How Brody tackles erp

34:29 What to do to make erp work?

36:00 How family and other support can help

41:10 What comes after therapy?

43:00 When does erp not work?

46:34 Erp is imperfect

49:05 Questions from the listeners: Erp and medication

51:20 Key takeaways for erp for OCD

51:55 OCD Weekly Wins

52:56 Exposure Lab feedback

55:20 Exposure Lab for contamination OCD

56:20 Thank you and goodbyes

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