Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this… I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do. ”
Eleanor Roosevelt
Dr. Cooper specializes in a cognitive-behavioral treatment for OCD called Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). ERP is the most evidence-based intervention for OCD and is considered the gold standard treatment. ERP consists of first identifying the specific obsessions that provoke your anxiety and distress and the compulsions that aim to reduce the anxiety. While compulsions may reduce anxiety in the short-term, compulsions serve to maintain and worsen OCD symptoms in the long-term. ERP therefore consists of exposures, where you will be encouraged to confronting feared situations, thoughts, and images that trigger your anxiety. Simultaneously, you will learn to notice urges to engage in rituals and compulsions. You will aim to reduce and eliminate such behaviors that are unhelpful in the long-term, known as ritual prevention.
Treatments will be individualized to create a step-by-step treatment plan in line with your goals and values that help empower you to gradually face your fears that you have been avoiding and that are keeping you trapped from more fully living your life. Many people find facing unknown and feared situations to be daunting and scary. ERP is a challenging, collaborative, rewarding, and highly effective treatment that gives many people a sense of hope and accomplishment. Your actions become guided by what you want for your life and not your OCD.
