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What Is Exposure Therapy? A Brief Explanation for Adults

Learn how NIMH describes exposure therapy, learning to tolerate distress in a supportive environment, and the factors that guide treatment planning.

Gouache illustration of an adult standing at the near end of a small wooden footbridge over a stream

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) describes exposure therapy as a type of cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, used for anxiety disorders. Its description focuses on learning to tolerate fear-related distress in a supportive environment.[1]

What does exposure therapy involve?

In NIMH’s description, a person spends brief periods in a supportive environment learning to tolerate distress caused by certain items, ideas, or imagined scenes.[1]

Three details help explain that process:

  • The practice takes place in a supportive environment.
  • It involves learning to tolerate distress during brief periods.
  • The distress may relate to items, ideas, or imagined scenes—not only physical objects.
[1]

What happens to fear over time?

NIMH describes continuing this process until, over time, the fear associated with those things decreases. This describes the therapeutic process rather than predicting an individual result or setting a treatment schedule.[1]

Understanding a therapy is different from choosing treatment

A general explanation describes what a therapy involves. Selecting an individual treatment plan requires a different focus: the person’s needs and medical situation. NIMH says that selection should take place under the guidance of a mental health professional.[1]

This article explains the process; it does not offer exercises or an individual treatment plan.

Sources

  1. National Institute of Mental Health: Psychotherapies (opens in a new tab)

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