ERP Therapy in Colorado

When we practice ERP, we are literally rewiring our brain. We are interrupting the OCD cycle by teaching the brain something different: that it can send you the message of anxiety/discomfort, but you don’t have to act on it. You can actually handle the feelings. As you know, life will always contain discomfort. It will always contain uncertainty. Our job isn’t to eliminate these things; it’s to prove to ourselves that we can tolerate them and keep living our lives the way we want to. In short: we can do hard things! ♡

What is the pace of ERP?

We will begin by getting clear on your personal obsessions and compulsions, and from there we make what’s called a hierarchy. A hierarchy is where we rank your compulsions from easiest to hardest to resist. From there we can start doing the work of ERP, typically starting with the easiest ones and working our way up.

ERP can be as slow or as fast as you want it to be. Think of it like a muscle: the more often you exercise it, the stronger it will become. Because of this, consistency is more important than intensity. While some people prefer to dive right into the intense stuff, that’s definitely not required. You can start wherever you want and go at whatever pace feels manageable to you. The most important thing is that you are consistently showing up and continuing to push yourself out of your comfort zone, however big or small.

How ERP helps with OCD

As mentioned above, ERP interrupts the OCD cycle and rewires our brain. The OCD cycle is as follows:

Obsession (intrusive thoughts, feelings, sensations, urges, images) → Discomfort (anxiety) → Compulsion (physical acts, avoidance, mental compulsions, reassurance seeking, depressive compulsions, self-punishment) → Relief (which reinforces the cycle)

This cycle reinforces itself not because there’s something wrong with you, but because the brain is really good at its job: it is wired for survival and wants to experience safety and relief. And when it finds something that provides this relief, it wants to continue doing that thing, over and over. Essentially, the brain is stuck in a pattern that feels difficult to break.

This is where ERP comes in. ERP helps us interrupt that cycle. While we can’t control our obsessions (we all have them - this is part of the human experience!), we CAN control our responses to them. When we expose ourselves to obsessions, and experience discomfort and anxiety, and DON’T engage in compulsions we are sending the brain a different message. We are learning that we can actually tolerate discomfort and uncertainty, and we don’t have to do anything about it. Over time the brain realizes that it can continue to “sound the alarm” (anxiety) but you’re not going to act on it. You begin to trust yourself and your senses again, and can recognize OCD for what it is. Essentially, through this process you are getting back into the driver’s seat of your life and making the choices YOU want to make, not what OCD is demanding of you.