Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy is a specialized first-line treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The overarching goal of treatment is to help clients experience situations that cause them anxiety, realize that they are safe, and experience their anxiety naturally decreasing without the use of their compulsive behaviors.

The exposure portion of the treatment allows clients to gradually confront the thoughts, images and situations that make them feel anxious, while the response prevention portion of treatment provides clients with the choice to not engage in compulsive behaviors that are triggered by anxiety/obsessions. The gradual nature of the treatment allows for an approachable level of anxiety, where success is possible. An important consequence of this treatment is that you get to experience an increased sense of being able to cope despite experiencing anxiety symptoms, which then will naturally reduce. Thus, the OCD cycle is broken.