The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) features guest blog posts by industry experts. Recently, Ben Eckstein, LCSW contributed an article titled “Infusing ERP with Self-Compassion”. While Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is an effective evidence-based treatment for OCD, it sometimes doesn’t quite get the job done. This approach works great for fear-based obsessions (where the primary emotion is anxiety), but it can get a little messier when OCD involves other emotions, like shame, guilt, disgust, or a not-just-right feeling. It can help to augment ERP with other tools, like compassion-focused therapy. To read more, check out the article here.
Going to Denver!
An in-person conference! Finally! I’m really excited to be heading to Denver to present at the ADAA Annual Conference. My talk will be about utilizing the principles of exposure transdiagnostically, using our understanding of experiential learning to treat a variety of presentations of anxiety and worry. I can’t wait to catch up with colleagues and soak in the community… and I’ll be making a bee-line for the mountains after my talk is over. After all, what’s a conference in Colorado in March without a quick ski trip!