Eric Morris, PhD, a psychologist in Australia, wrote a really interesting blog post about therapist reluctance to use exposure. As I’ve written about in previous posts, exposure therapy is one of the most effective interventions we have in treating anxiety-related disorders, such as OCD, phobias, and PTSD. Unfortunately, although exposure has been around for several decades, many therapists don’t use it.
As Dr. Morris writes:
Well, it isn’t just that many therapists use approaches that are not evidence-based. It seems that even those therapists who have been trained, end up not using exposure routinely. It is likely that exposure is the first empirically supported method that therapists stop doing soon after their training.
Dr. Morris also suggests ways in which Acceptance and Commitment Therapy may help increase therapist flexibility in using exposure.
He makes a good argument, and all the references he cites are very current. I thought his blog post would make a good inclusion to my ongoing writing about exposure therapy.
