Desirable Difficulties: Optimizing Exposure Therapy for Anxiety Through Inhibitory Learning
By Jonathan Abramowitz, PhD
Professor, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Friday, June 3rd, 2022
9AM - 1PM EST
Non-Member Price $150
Members save $50
Students save $60
Student Members save $75
Established professionals, early career professionals, and students from all applied, research, and academic settings are invited to attend. Tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable.
3.5 CE credits approved for NYS Psychology (PSY-0016), Social Work, Mental Health Counseling, MFT and Art Therapy
Topic Description:
Fear and anxiety are among the most common problems for which individuals seek psychological treatment. Although exposure therapy is highly effective for these conditions, many clients fail to benefit or experience relapse at some point after treatment. Cutting-edge models of exposure focus on an inhibitory learning theory of fear extinction, which points to specific techniques to optimize short- and long-term treatment gains. Collectively, inhibitory learning strategies emphasize distress tolerance, as opposed to habituation of distress; and introduce “desirable difficulties” into exposure by challenging clients to learn that their feared situations are not dangerous. This workshop aims to help clinicians apply this model to optimize exposure therapy. The inhibitory learning model will be described, and then numerous practical strategies for optimizing inhibitory learning during exposure will be introduced and illustrated in detail using case descriptions and videos.
Agenda:
9:00-9:40: Understanding clinical anxiety and its treatment
9:40-10:15: Exposure therapy: How does it work?
10:15-10:35: BREAK 1
10:35-11:40: Clinical strategies for optimizing inhibitory learning:
Framing exposure to disconfirm threat-based expectations / Expectancy Tracking
Introducing variability into exposure
Combining multiple fear cues
Affect labeling
11:40-12:00: BREAK 2
12:00-12:55: Attentional Focus
Safety behaviors and exposure – Prevent or Permit?
Reinstatement of safety learning
Troubleshooting
12:55-1:00: Q&A
Learning Objectives:
You will learn:
How exposure therapy works via fear extinction
How to avoid common missteps when implementing exposure
How to design exposure therapy trials which will allow the client to learn new non-threatening ways of thinking about feared stimuli and the experience of anxiety itself
Speaker Biography:
Jonathan Abramowitz, PhD is a Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Director of the OCD and Anxiety Disorders Clinic. He is an internationally recognized leader in the treatment of OCD and anxiety disorders and has published over 300 books and scientific articles in these areas. He is a Past President of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) and the founding Editor of the Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders (JOCRD).