Exposure and Response Prevention Treatment

Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy for OCD: What to Know

You’re tired of the anxious thoughts that keep popping into your head. You’ve tried everything to quiet them, but you feel stuck, repeating the same habits over and over again. And now, you’re starting to realize those strategies don’t work like they used to. The anxiety comes back faster, stronger, and harder to control.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Many people dealing with intrusive thoughts feel the same way, and exposure and response prevention therapy for OCD is one of the most effective approaches to break that cycle and find relief.

Feel Stuck in Loops? Learn How ERP Therapy Can Help

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is considered the gold-standard treatment for obsessive-compulsive and related disorders (OCRDs). It’s the first-line approach for these conditions and is often used to treat anxiety as well, thanks to its effectiveness in reducing symptoms and supporting long-term progress.

ERP focuses on facing fears (exposure) while resisting the behaviors (response prevention) that usually bring short-term relief. Over time, this helps reduce anxiety’s grip and allows for more flexible, functional living.

When seeking exposure and response prevention therapy for OCD, it’s important to work with professionals trained specifically in ERP. At Anxiety Center of Tampa, our therapists are experienced in delivering this treatment both in-person throughout the Tampa Bay Area and via Telehealth for clients across Florida.

Therefore, the exposure part of ERP is essential to treatment to bring about anxiety. Once the anxiety is triggered, you will be guided by your therapist through response prevention. You will learn how to appropriately prevent a response to alleviate the anxiety triggered from the exposure. When these steps are repeated correctly, a person struggling with OCD can experience long-term relief from anxiety without having to do anything at all to make the anxiety away.

What is ERP Treatment?

ERP is a type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that focuses on behavior. There are two parts to ERP treatment: the exposure part and the response prevention part. Before you begin treatment, you and your ERP therapist will identify a list of triggers. You will then work together to develop a hierarchy of exposures for you to face. During the exposure phase of treatment, you will confront these thoughts, images, objects, and/or situations. One of the goals of ERP treatment is to experience habituation. Habituation is the process where a person’s behavioral and sensory responses to a trigger diminish over time.

Feel Stuck in Loops? Learn How ERP Therapy Can Help

Adults, children, and adolescents can all benefit from ERP treatment, as it can be adjusted to meet each person’s specific needs.

The following diagnoses often respond well to ERP therapy:

  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

  • Generalized Anxiety Disorder

  • Panic Disorder

  • Phobias

  • Social Anxiety Disorder

  • Illness Anxiety Disorder (Hypochondriasis)

  • Agoraphobia

Anxiety Center of Tampa’s Approach to ERP Treatment

The therapists at Anxiety Center of Tampa understand the time and effort required to treat OCRDs. One of the ways we support our clients is by offering ERP therapy in Tampa through both in-office and telehealth options. Our office is stocked with materials helpful for exposures across different OCD subtypes, and telehealth allows clients to work through exposures in the comfort of their home, where many triggers often arise.

We also provide community-based sessions when needed. Our therapists are available to meet you in real-world settings like malls, restaurants, parks, or your home—wherever an exposure would be most meaningful. This approach allows you to apply what you learn in therapy directly to daily life. With ERP therapy, the goal is always to help you build confidence in managing your anxiety in real-life situations.

  • ERP is a highly effective treatment. When engaged in correctly, progress can be seen almost immediately. However, every person is different in terms of severity if illness, extent of compulsions, and motivation for treatment. It’s important for you to be open to engaging in exposures and to complete daily homework in order to set yourself up for success.

  • ERP can be scary and sometimes difficult. This is because you will be facing triggers that you have normally avoided up until now. It can be uncomfortable to sit with anxiety instead of engaging in those behaviors that have become so demanding over time that don’t even work long-term. However, ERP treatment intends to trigger anxiety. If you’re feeling anxious and uncomfortable you’re likely doing it correctly, which means you’re on your way to making progress and getting better.

  • An ERP therapist will work with you to identify sets of exposures that are appropriate for you. For example, someone with contamination OCD may be instructed to touch different doorknobs, shake peoples hands, or touch a garbage can. Gradually, the intensity of exposures will be increased over time. Eventually, the exposures listed before may not trigger anxiety anymore, therefore, you will move through your hierarchy to exposures like touching a toilet seat or the bottom of your shoes. This may sound bizarre and unnecessary, however, for someone with OCD, it is important to reach outside of what’s typical for treatment to have the best long-lasting results.

  • ERP therapists want a client to be prepared to cope with anxiety under many circumstances. While you may not typically reach inside of a garbage can and dig through trash, you may find yourself one day dropping something into a trash can by accident. If that were to happen, would you be able to reach in and recover what you lost without avoiding, ritualizing, or panicking? ERP prepares you to adjust to different circumstances and to accept the uncertainty of a situation so that you don’t become paralyzed by anxiety and fear.

    If you have more questions about ERP and how it works, give us a call at 813-773-5807 or send us an email through our contact page.

Begin ERP Treatment with Anxiety Center of Tampa

You can start regaining control over your life as soon as right now! Our therapists are flexible and will work with you to create a schedule that works for you. Here our some easy steps to follow to start treatment today:

  1. Send us an email through our contact page or call us at 813-773-5807.

  2. Learn more about our therapists for OCD and anxiety before your first appointment.

  3. Get ready to learn how to cope with anxiety so that you can live your life in accordance to your goals and values