Using ACT to Guide Exposure Therapy: The Basics

Exposure therapy is the gold standard intervention for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive and related disorders (OCRDs). Since the early success of exposure, many theories have been created to understand and explain its mechanism. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy has emerged as a useful framework to understand how to use exposure effectively including how to overcome barriers to engagement with exposure. Within the past 10 years, research has demonstrated the effectiveness of exposure therapy within the context of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Bluett et al., 2014). This is a beginner workshop intended to provide the foundations of exposure therapy including types of exposure interventions and design effective exposure exercises for various anxiety disorders and OCRDs. Participants will learn how to use the ACT model to guide the implementation of exposure techniques and how ACT processes may be strengthened by exposure exercises. This workshop will provide some background in theory and will demonstrate to use of ACT-informed exposure in clinical contexts using experiential demonstrations and the practice of new skills by participants.