Exposure Based Therapy

Exposure based therapy works by helping a person be able to face and gain control of their fears or traumatic memories, while also building relaxation and coping skills. Exposure based therapy is effective for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, social anxiety, and other phobias. When paired with response prevention, it is also highly effective for obsessive compulsive disorder. This type of treatment involves building a hierarchy or list of anxiety provoking situations and extinquishing the anxiety response through in vivo (real life) or imagery based exposure to the situation.  It is important to note that this is always done with the patient in control of the pace and ability to terminate the exposure.