Exposure Therapy for Anxiety Explainers

These videos explain the rationale for using exposure therapy in the treatment of anxiety disorders. Some are general and transdiagnostic while others describe applications specific to certain diagnoses.

Transdiagnostic

The animated videos below provide psychoeducation on the rational of exposure therapy using a more traditional habituation-based approach using a hierarchical approach. These videos were created for an Internet-based CBT program for the treatment of anxiety in children with autism (referred to as LUNA in the video) by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine. While the video refers to a few elements specific to LUNA (e.g., rewards) the videos are widely applicable. Guzick, A.G., Garcia Perozo, A., Kook, M., McNeel, M., Riddle, D.B., Schneider, S.C., & Storch, E.A. (unpublished website). Learning to Understand and Navigate Anxiety (LUNA) for Autistic Youth Program.

• For parents or caregivers of children and teens

• For teens (includes an example of a hierarchy for a teen with social anxiety)

• For younger kids (7-9 years old, includes an example of a hierarchy for a child with separation anxiety at night)

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Social Anxiety Disorder

This video describes social anxiety disorder (SAD) generally and provides a rational for the use of exposure therapy for the treatment of SAD. The video includes an explanation of the role of avoidance and safety behaviors as well as likelihood bias and cost bias. An example of how exposure therapy is used to treat a fear of dogs is provided first to aid in understanding followed by an explanation for how exposure therapy is used to treat SAD (using speech exposures as an example).