Log exposure and response prevention practice sessions with SUDS ratings, urge strength, and whether you resisted the compulsion.
After each ERP practice, record the exposure you did, your anxiety and compulsion urge ratings, whether you successfully prevented the ritual, and what you learned. Tracking your ERP practice helps you see that anxiety reduces without performing the ritual, building evidence that you can tolerate the discomfort.
Use during the active ERP phase to record between-session exposure practices. Introduce alongside the first homework exposure task agreed in session.
Frame as a learning diary rather than a performance tracker — the goal is to observe what happens to anxiety over time and to notice disconfirmatory evidence. Emphasise that 'imperfect' practice is still valuable data.
For clients who find written recording burdensome, consider simplified versions focusing only on the situation, peak distress, and end distress. For clients with contamination OCD, ensure the recording itself does not become a reassurance-seeking ritual.
If the client is using the record as a compulsive checking or reassurance tool (e.g., re-reading entries to confirm they did the exposure 'correctly'), address this therapeutically before continuing. Discontinue if record-keeping is functioning as avoidance of actual exposure.
Review records collaboratively at the start of each session to reinforce learning and shape subsequent exposures. Look for patterns where anxiety habituates within trials but not between trials, which may indicate subtle avoidance or mental neutralising during exposure.
Suitable for clients working with erp, ocd, cbt, exposure, response prevention, compulsions, rituals. This tool can be used as a standalone worksheet or as part of a structured homework plan.
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Build a graded exposure hierarchy for Exposure and Response Prevention therapy. List anxiety-provoking situations, rate them, and plan structured exposures.
Track OCD episodes — intrusions, appraisals, rituals, distress, and duration — to identify patterns and measure progress.
Challenge inflated responsibility beliefs that drive OCD by examining the appraisal and generating realistic alternatives.
Track covert / mental compulsions — mental reviewing, counting, praying, reassuring self — which are often missed because they're invisible.