Book Review = Self-Guided Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy for OCD by Natalia Aíza

 #partner @penguinrandomhouse Thanks for the free book  

OCD can be very debilitating. I have mild tendencies towards OCD, but have seen in my own family how impactful OCD can be in preventing family members from leading happy and independent lives. 

 This book provides one avenue to prevent OCD from becoming an all-consuming aspect of life by introducing the reader to ERP therapy, which stands for Exposure and response prevention therapy. This is not a new approach, but has been studied for decades. This therapy centers on the use of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which helps the OCD sufferer to face the fears through mindful challenges. The approach is intended to turn moments of anxiety into opportunities to exhibit calm and confident behavior. What was cause for failure before, can now be seen as a success to be celebrated.  

Long-term the hope to enable OCD sufferers to lead healthy and happy lives by introducing ERP therapy into an approach that reduces moments of anxiety and turns them into episodes that show the person how far they have come and that this challenge can be handled. 

The author introduces as an introduction the reader to the ability to map their OCD cycle, design exposure plans, and guide the rader through every stage of recovery.  One important aspect of the healing process is self-compassion to boost recovery. The reader will learn to replace self-criticism with patience and empathy; increasing the ability to overcome setbacks with kindness.

I really liked this book and support any therapy that is enabling the sufferer by introducing positive feelings instead of punishing the patient or stigmatizing the patient further. The positive reinforcement makes it easier to continue to the therapy and empowers the reader to not give up, but count the little wins as important steps to focus on and be encouraged to continue on the healing journey. 

 

available on amazon

 

This book was provided free of charge to me in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed in this post are my own and have not influenced by any third party.