North Star Conversations Transcript: What Makes ERP Different—Melanie Santos, PsyD
In this clip, Dr. Melanie Santos explains how Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) differs from other therapeutic approaches. Instead of avoiding anxiety triggers, patients work with a trained clinician to approach them directly—learning to resist compulsions and retrain the brain’s response to distress.
Brandon Gimbel (00:00)
What is different about ERP that it is able, that this treatment is able to help people with OCD, with safety behaviors, with reassurance seeking, et cetera, as compared to other therapies?
Melanie Santos (00:10)
That’s a really good question too. So face value, the strategy of intentionally exposing yourself to anxiety provoking situations may sound backward and difficult. It isn't easy, but it's not backwards. So with ERP, the difference is that someone trained is working with people to develop a plan for exposure, guiding them through the situations, to lean into the feelings, to stick with it and to resist the urge to engage in compulsive behavior. So by breaking these patterns, what it can do over time is that ERP can help you retrain your brain to manage the obsessions different.