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An exposure therapy worksheet can be a useful tool for therapists to help clients overcome fears, lessen anxiety, and strengthen emotional regulation skills.
This article provides an overview of exposure therapy, its benefits, and how exposure therapy worksheets can help clients overcome their challenges.
We’ve also included a free downloadable exposure therapy worksheet to save to your electronic health record (EHR) and share with clients.
What is exposure therapy?
A person who fears objects, situations, or activities may avoid them. This may provide temporary relief, but those fears and quality of life may worsen over time.
Exposure therapy is a psychological intervention used by therapists to help people overcome their fears and mental health conditions, including:
Anxiety
Panic attacks
Phobias
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
This therapy can help clients face things that are negatively impacting their lives.
As the name suggests, exposure therapy provides a safe environment in which clients face fears with a therapist.
It works by gradually exposing clients to their fears in a controlled environment, which can help reduce their reaction or fear over time.
Typically, exposure therapy lasts several weeks or months, depending on the specific target of the treatment and the type of exposure therapy worksheets used.
Types of exposure therapy
There are various types of exposure therapy, including:
Real exposure
Also called in vivo exposure, this strategy involves directly facing the object, situation, or activity in real life.
For example, a person frightened of heights may gradually expose themselves to increasing heights, starting with a tall building and moving toward a bridge.
Imagined exposure
This type of exposure is helpful for people with PTSD. It involves imagining the situation, activity, or object and describing the experience in detail.
Virtual-reality exposure
Also called simulation exposure, this type of virtual exposure involves using technology to simulate an experience.
For instance, therapists might use a flight simulator to expose a person who is fearful of flying.
Interoceptive exposure
This type of exposure therapy involves increased exposure to feared physical sensations that may trigger anxiety or panic.
For example, if a person is worried about having a heart attack, they may engage in an activity like running to learn that an increased heart rate does not mean they will have one.
Prolonged exposure
Used to treat PTSD, prolonged exposure uses imagined and in vivo exposure together with distress tolerance skills to process trauma.
Approaches to exposure therapy and activities in a specific exposure therapy worksheet may differ from those found in other worksheets.
For example, therapists may use graded exposure to deal with mild fears and progress to more distressing situations. They could use a flooding technique that involves first beginning with the most distressing fear. Or, they may combine relaxation techniques with exposure to make the process feel more manageable.
What are the benefits of exposure therapy?
Left untreated, mental health conditions like anxiety, fear, and stress can have a negative impact on physical health, psychological health, and quality of life.
Research shows that exposure therapy is an effective treatment for phobias, OCD, anxiety, PTSD, panic attacks, and social anxiety, including anxiety disorders in children.
Exposure therapy has several benefits, such as:
Lessens the response to fears (known as habituation)
Weakens the association between fears and adverse outcomes (called extinction)
Improves self-efficacy, demonstrating that you can face difficult situations and cope
Strengthens emotional regulation skills by creating more realistic thoughts and beliefs about feared objects, activities, or situations
When combined with exposure tracking logs or exposure therapy worksheets, clients will have evidence that tackling their fears head-on works.
How to use exposure therapy worksheets
You can download and use our exposure therapy worksheet in several ways with clients.
For example, you can print or screen share exposure therapy worksheets and use them as session psychoeducational prompts.
You can also give the exposure therapy worksheet to the client to remind them of what you discussed during therapy. Then, ask the client to practice their exposure plan and then report their progress in their exposure tracking sheet to discuss at their next therapy appointment.
Sources
American Psychological Association. (2017). What is Exposure Therapy?
Catanese, L. (2024). Exposure therapy: What is it and how can it help? Harvard Health Publishing.
Schopf, K., Mohr, C., Lippert, M. W., Sommer, K., Meyer, A. H., & Schneider, S. (2020). The role of exposure in the treatment of anxiety in children and adolescents: protocol of a systematic review and meta-analysis.
University of Michigan. (n.d.). Exposure and Desensitization.
Watkins LE, et al. (2018). Treating PTSD: A review of evidence-based psychotherapy interventions.
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