The Maximizing The Effectiveness Of Exposure Therapy handout utilizes insights from inhibitory learning theory to help clinicians and clients conduct more effective exposure therapy.
Offers theory, guidance, and prompts for mental health professionals. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
Includes client-friendly guidance. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
An editable Microsoft PowerPoint version of the resource.
Despite its position as the leading treatment technique for anxiety disorders, not all clients respond to exposure therapy and some individuals relapse following successful treatment. The Maximizing The Effectiveness Of Exposure Therapy information handout uses cutting edge insights from inhibitory learning theory to help clinicians and their clients conduct exposure therapy that is most likely to lead to recovery.
Exposure therapy is most effectice when it incorporates strategies that optimize learning.
Addressing panic through interoceptive and situational exposures.
Decreasing compulsions via exposure and response prevention.
Reducing social fears and avoidance by confronting anxiety-provoking situations.
Design exposures that test client beliefs and demonstrate prediction failures.
Deepen extinction by introducing multiple fear cues both separately and combined.
Practice exposure at irregular intervals to prevent fear resurgence.
Encourage release from safety behaviors to facilitate genuine learning.
Introduce variability in exposure duration, settings, and intensity.
Use cues to solidify learning and prevent relapse.
Conduct exposure across diverse situations for generalization.
Encourage clients to label emotions to enhance exposure efficacy.
Exposure therapy is the most effective treatment for anxiety disorders. It can take various forms, including graduated or intense methods (such as flooding), brief or prolonged sessions, and imaginal or in vivo exposure.
Craske and colleagues (2014) propose that inhibitory learning is the most useful model for understanding exposure therapy. They argue that individuals with anxiety often experience deficits in the mechanisms that support extinction learning. By optimizing inhibitory learning during exposure, clinicians can enhance the effectiveness of treatment. They have identified nine strategies that can help maximize the effectiveness of exposure therapy: expectancy violation, deepened extinction, occasional reinforced extinction, removal of safety signals, variability, retrieval cues, multiple contexts, reconsolidation, and affect labeling.
Maximizing The Effectiveness Of Exposure Therapy is an informational handout designed to assist clinicians and their anxious clients in planning and conducting effective exposure therapy.
