ERP Therapy in Leicester and Online Across the UK

Specialist Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP) Therapy for OCD, Intrusive Thoughts and Compulsions.

Specialist ERP Therapy in Leicester and Online Across the UK

At Resilient Mind Therapies, we offer specialist Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy for adults experiencing OCD, intrusive thoughts and compulsions.

ERP is a form of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) that helps you gradually face situations, thoughts or feelings that trigger obsessive fears, while learning to respond without carrying out compulsions.

We offer ERP therapy in Leicester and online across the UK, with treatment tailored to your individual difficulties.

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What is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)?

Exposure and Response Prevention, usually called ERP, is a form of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) used to treat OCD.

ERP involves gradually approaching situations, thoughts or experiences that trigger obsessive doubt, while learning to resist the compulsions you would usually use to feel certain, safe or reassured.

The exposure part involves approaching something you have been avoiding or learning to experience an unwanted thought without immediately trying to get rid of it.

Response prevention involves reducing the rituals or other responses that maintain the OCD cycle.

These responses might include checking, reassurance seeking, mental reviewing, confessing, researching or avoiding particular situations.

The aim is not to force yourself to feel anxious or prove that something bad will never happen. It is to develop a different relationship with uncertainty and learn that you do not have to respond to every obsessive doubt.

How does ERP therapy work for OCD?

OCD often begins with an intrusive thought, image, urge or doubt.

You might worry that you have made a mistake, harmed somebody, acted inappropriately or overlooked something important.

The thought can feel urgent and difficult to leave unresolved.

You may then do something to reduce the doubt. This could involve checking, asking for reassurance, avoiding a situation or repeatedly going over something in your mind.

Although these responses may provide temporary relief, they can reinforce the pattern of returning to the same doubt.

ERP focuses on changing this pattern.

In ERP therapy, you work with your therapist to identify the situations, thoughts and experiences that trigger obsessive fears, along with the compulsions you use to manage them. Together, you develop a treatment plan that involves gradually approaching these triggers while practising responding differently, without relying on compulsions.

This might involve reducing checking, resisting reassurance seeking, approaching situations you have been avoiding or allowing intrusive thoughts to be present without mentally reviewing or analysing them.

Over time, ERP helps you learn that you can experience uncertainty and discomfort without needing to carry out compulsions. The aim is not to eliminate intrusive thoughts, but to change how you respond to them so they have less impact on your everyday life.

What to expect during ERP therapy

Understanding your OCD

We begin by exploring how OCD affects you.

This includes identifying the situations, thoughts and doubts that trigger distress, along with the compulsions and avoidance behaviours that follow.

Some compulsions are obvious. Others happen entirely in your mind and may be difficult to recognise.

Understanding your individual OCD pattern helps us develop a treatment plan that is relevant to your experiences.

Planning exposure exercises together

ERP involves developing exercises that help you practise responding differently to OCD.

These are planned collaboratively and adapted to your circumstances.

For example, someone who repeatedly checks whether they have made a mistake might practise completing a task without returning to check it again.

Someone who experiences intrusive thoughts might practise allowing a thought to be present without analysing what it means or trying to neutralise it.

We work at a manageable pace, while recognising that effective ERP may involve experiencing some discomfort and uncertainty.

Reducing compulsions

An important part of ERP is learning to recognise and reduce compulsions.

This can include physical rituals, but also less visible behaviours such as:

Repeatedly reviewing memories or conversations.
Checking your feelings or physical reactions.
Asking others for reassurance.
Researching to establish certainty.
Mentally arguing with intrusive thoughts.
Avoiding people, places or situations.
Confessing to relieve guilt or doubt.

The focus is on developing new responses to OCD rather than trying to eliminate unwanted thoughts.

Can ERP help with intrusive thoughts and mental compulsions?

Yes. ERP can be used to treat OCD involving intrusive thoughts and mental compulsions, even when there are few or no visible rituals.

Some people experience OCD primarily through unwanted thoughts, images, doubts or urges.

You might spend hours trying to work out what a thought means, whether a memory is accurate or whether you could be responsible for something terrible.

Because these compulsions happen internally, they can be difficult for other people to notice.

ERP can help you identify these mental rituals and practise responding to intrusive thoughts without repeatedly analysing, checking or seeking certainty.

This is particularly relevant to presentations sometimes described as Pure O.

What types of OCD can ERP treat?

Contamination OCD

Fears about germs, illness, contamination or spreading something harmful, often involving washing, cleaning, checking or avoidance.

Checking OCD

Repeated doubts about whether something has been completed correctly or safely, leading to repeated checking or reassurance seeking.

Harm OCD

Unwanted thoughts, images or urges about causing harm, often accompanied by avoidance, mental checking or attempts to establish certainty about your intentions.

Relationship OCD

Persistent doubts about your relationship, your feelings or your partner, leading to repeated analysis, comparison or reassurance seeking.

Sexual OCD

Distressing, unwanted sexual thoughts, images or doubts, which may lead to checking your reactions, avoiding situations or repeatedly analysing what the thoughts mean.

Real Event and False Memory OCD

Repeatedly reviewing past experiences, trying to establish exactly what happened or seeking certainty about what an event means.

Moral and Religious OCD

Obsessive doubts involving morality, responsibility, faith or whether you have done something wrong.

Existential OCD

Intrusive doubts or questions about existence, reality, consciousness or the meaning of life, often leading to rumination, mental checking, reassurance seeking or repeated research to find certainty.

You can read more about these experiences on our specialist OCD therapy page.

Does ERP mean facing your worst fears?

ERP is sometimes described as simply facing your fears, but this does not fully explain how treatment works.

Effective ERP involves understanding your OCD, identifying compulsions and developing exercises that are appropriate to your difficulties.

It is not about deliberately placing yourself or other people in genuine danger.

Nor should it involve being pushed into exercises without understanding their purpose.

Some exercises involve approaching situations you have avoided. Others involve changing how you respond to thoughts, memories, feelings or uncertainty.

Your therapist will work with you to plan exercises, review what you learn and address difficulties that arise during treatment.

The aim is to help you respond more flexibly to OCD rather than continuing to organise your life around its demands.

What if I have tried ERP before and it hasn't helped?

Some people come to us having already tried CBT or ERP without experiencing the improvement they hoped for.

There can be different reasons for this.

Sometimes mental compulsions have been difficult to identify. You may have completed exposure exercises while continuing to analyse thoughts, seek reassurance or mentally review what happened afterwards.

Other times, treatment may not have adequately addressed the particular doubts or compulsions maintaining your OCD.

We will explore what you have previously tried, what was helpful and what you found difficult.

This can help us understand whether further ERP may be appropriate and how treatment could be approached differently.

We also offer Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT) through therapists with additional training in this approach.

I-CBT focuses on how obsessional doubt develops and how imagined possibilities can come to feel more convincing than information from present reality.

It offers a different approach to working with OCD and may be considered where clinically appropriate.

Online ERP Therapy across the UK

You do not need to live in Leicester to access specialist ERP therapy.

We provide online ERP therapy for adults throughout the UK using secure video appointments.

Online treatment allows you to work with a specialist OCD therapist from your own home.

Depending on your difficulties, ERP exercises may involve situations in your everyday environment. Your therapist can help you plan these exercises and review your experiences during appointments.

Online sessions follow the same individualised approach as our face-to-face therapy.

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Face-to-face ERP Therapy in Leicester

We also provide face-to-face OCD therapy, including ERP, from our therapy room in Blaby, Leicestershire.

Face-to-face availability is limited, so please let us know when you enquire if in-person therapy is important to you.

Online appointments are available across the UK.

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Why choose Resilient Mind Therapies for ERP?

OCD is one of our specialist areas. Our BABCP-accredited CBT therapists have experience treating OCD, intrusive thoughts and mental compulsions.

We offer specialist CBT incorporating ERP, with I-CBT available where appropriate.

Appointments are available online across the UK and in person in Blaby, Leicester.