- Today we're gonna talk about exposure therapy.
What is it?
And why do we use it?
(upbeat music)
So exposure therapy
is a CBT technique.
CBT meaning cognitive behavioral therapy.
But it's a technique that's used in CBT
to treat PTSD and phobias.
Before I even get into what exposure therapy is,
I want to let you know how important it is
that you see someone who specializes in exposure therapy.
Someone who is trained in it,
continues to learn about it,
and practices it with clients regularly.
And this is because it is so important
that they know how to properly do it with you,
otherwise you can be retraumatized
and actually leave therapy feeling worse.
So go ahead,
ask to see their resume,
ask to see how they got trained,
ask who trained them,
ask when they last practiced it on a client,
ask when they last went to a convention
or a talk about it.
It's okay to ask those things.
I have clients ask all the time
about my eating disorder training
and DBT training, especially.
It's okay to ask those questions
to make sure that you are in a safe place
with this clinician and that they are trained to help you.
So exposure therapy works in PTSD and phobias.
Obviously, at a clinician's discretion,
it can be used to treat other things
but those are the most common.
Now, in PTSD, it works to help the patient
gain control over the fear and pain
that may be associated with their trauma.
In some cases, flooding is the best option.
Flooding meaning putting you right back into that scenario,
all the fears and, you know,
maybe the physical pain.
You may have body memories about it.
You may feel those.
All those come flooding back
and then they help you calm yourself down
in the situation itself
and help you process through the trauma
and feel okay with it.
For some people, that's the best option.
That's the best way for them to process through it.
For other people, they need gradual desensitization.
They need to think about the trauma
and calm themselves down.
Need to imagine themselves going to see
that person who traumatized them
and calming themselves down.
It may be a slower progression
and that's why it's so important
to have someone who specializes in it
because they need to be able to tell
which is best for you
and what will be right in your process
as you work through this PTSD.
The second reason that they usually use
exposure therapy is with regard to phobias.
And I'm reading my notes,
it says that with regard to phobia,
relaxation exercises, imagery, and mindfulness
are extremely important.
It's so that we can be slowly introduced,
like I talked about in the PTSD,
where we slowly desensitize ourselves to it.
That is the way that this works in phobias.
There's no flooding with regard to phobias.
They stated that that's usually not the best way
to treat that and help you overcome it.
The best way is to gradually exposes you
to the thing that you're most fearful of
and you slowly learn that you have control over that.
And they use relaxation techniques,
breathing techniques,
some do meditation, mindfulness.
All of these tools can be helpful
in this process
and that's why it's really important
for you to work with someone
who specializes because one of the steps
that they talked about being really important
before doing the phobia work
is really installing all of those
different options in yourself;
being really comfortable with your breathing techniques,
being really good at being mindful and meditating,
so that you have a bunch of tools to use
when you imagine yourself going back
or even physically introducing yourself to a phobia.
All of those tools need to be almost innate,
so you can pull them out,
you can use them,
and you can calm yourself down.
So that, in a nutshell, is what exposure therapy is.
And I hope it answers some of those questions
that you may have and maybe why your therapist
is requesting that you look into it.
It can be so beneficial,
so please if you found this helpful,
share this video.
You never know who it might help.
Someone might be considering it.
Maybe someone's therapist brought it up
and they're like, oh, I don't know what that is.
You never know who you're gonna help.
And if you're new to my channel
and you haven't described, click over here.
And if you want more information on other types of therapy,
click over here and I will see you next time.