In this episode of Breaking the Rules, we do something a little different — we guide you through a live experiential exercise used in therapy to demonstrate how Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) actually feels in the moment.
Using a simple jelly bean (or Mentos), we walk through an exercise that highlights one of the most important lessons in OCD treatment: the urge to escape discomfort can be powerful, but it can also be tolerated.
Through this exercise, we explore how quickly the mind and body react to discomfort, how intrusive thoughts and urges show up, and how reconnecting with meaning and values can shift our relationship with those experiences.
Experiential exercises like this are commonly used in ACT, DBT, and ERP therapy because they allow people to learn through doing, rather than just talking about the skills intellectually.
In this episode we discuss:
🔖 Chapters
00:00 Introduction – Doing Something Different Today
02:00 What Is an Experiential Exercise?
04:00 Why Experiential Learning Matters in ERP
06:00 The Mentos (Jelly Bean) Exercise Begins
08:00 Surfing the Urge to Swallow
10:00 Intrusive Thoughts and Rising Discomfort
11:30 Debrief: What Happened During the Exercise
14:00 Acceptance and Changing Your Relationship to Discomfort
16:00 Intrusive Thoughts, Images, and Urges
18:00 Using This Exercise With Clients and Families
20:00 Teaching ERP Through Experience
","author_name":"Dr Celin Gelgec and Dr Victoria Miller"}