What Is ERP and How Can It Help with OCD?
If you’re living with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), you probably know how exhausting it can be. Intrusive thoughts, intense doubt, and the urge to perform rituals or seek reassurance can feel overwhelming. You might find yourself avoiding certain situations, questioning your values, or spending hours trying to feel “just right.” It’s not just anxiety, it’s a cycle that can take over your life.
The gold-standard treatment for OCD is Exposure and Response Prevention, or ERP. But what exactly is ERP, and how does it work?
What Is ERP?
ERP is a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) specifically designed to treat OCD. It involves two core components:
Exposure: Gradually facing the thoughts, images, or situations that trigger your anxiety or distress.
Response Prevention: Choosing not to engage in the compulsions, rituals, or avoidance behaviors that temporarily reduce that anxiety.
This process helps retrain your brain and body. Over time, the things that once felt unbearable begin to feel more manageable, and you reclaim your ability to live life on your terms.
How ERP Works in Practice
ERP is collaborative and structured. In therapy, we identify your intrusive thought patterns and map out the behaviors that follow, whether it's checking, washing, avoiding, confessing, or mentally reviewing. We then build a hierarchy of exposures, starting with easier challenges and moving toward harder ones, always at a pace that feels doable.
You might:
Touch something you fear is “contaminated” without washing your hands
Allow a distressing thought to be there without neutralizing it
Practice saying “maybe, maybe not” in the face of moral or relationship-related doubt
The goal isn’t to eliminate thoughts, it’s to change your relationship to them.
Why ERP Is So Effective
OCD tricks you into believing that certainty and safety can be achieved through rituals. But the more you feed that cycle, the stronger it becomes. ERP interrupts the loop.
Over time, your nervous system learns: I can feel anxiety and not act on it. I can tolerate uncertainty. I can live without constant checking or reassurance.
ERP helps rewire these fear-based patterns by:
Reducing sensitivity to triggers
Building distress tolerance
Restoring trust in your values, not your fears
A Human-Centered Approach
I understand that ERP can sound intimidating at first. That’s why my approach is always collaborative, compassionate, and paced with care. We integrate tools from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and mindfulness to support the emotional work of ERP, helping you stay grounded, present, and connected to what matters most.
Whether you’re dealing with harm OCD, contamination fears, relationship OCD, or existential themes, ERP can help you step out of the loop and into your life.
Ready to Begin?
If you’re looking for OCD treatment in California, I offer ERP therapy via telehealth statewide and in-person in Santa Monica. I’d be honored to support you.
Schedule a free 20-minute consultation to learn more and see if we’re a good fit.