Mastering the Subtleties of ERP for OCD: Preparing Your Clients for Success - 6 CEUs

To access the discount form for registering for multiple workshops or participants, please click here.

*For more information about our various ERP Certification programs, please visit our detailed ERP Certifications Page here!*

When & Where:

• Date: Friday, April 11, 2025
  • If you cannot attend this workshop live on 4/11, you can pre-register for the on-demand version here: https://www.theknowledgetree.org/p/erp-subtleties-...
• Time: 10:30am - 5:30pm Eastern Time
• CE Hours Included: 6 Core (please see below for more details)
• Location: Live Interactive Webinar ("Synchronous") on Zoom
• Investment: $140 before Friday, March 28th at 5:00pm Eastern Time, $160 after
  • To pay with PayPal, ACH transfer, or CashApp, please email us at [email protected] or call us at 404-913-2005. Otherwise, click below on "Save Your Spot Now!"
• Presented by: Shala Nicely, LPC, ACERP, CERP-P (see bio below)
• Workshop Recording: A recording of this workshop is available to review for 60 days after the presentation. However, participants must attend live to receive the "Synchronous" CE Certificate.
• Instruction Level: Intermediate
• Target Audience: Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists, Psychotherapists, Other Mental Health Professionals

Learning Objectives:

In this workshop, you will learn how to:

• Identify clients with OCD whose symptom severity matches the treatment intensity you can offer vs. those who need a higher level of care and use assessments to develop a comprehensive understanding of symptoms.
• Explain J.O.Y., a really helpful acronym Jon Hershfield and Shala coined in their book, Everyday Mindfulness for OCD: Tips, Tricks, and Skills for Living Joyfully.
• Describe how to review the risks of ERP with a client and then help the client jump into their first ERP experience with an empowering attitude and multiple tools to combat physical and mental compulsions.
• Apply key skills to clients’ ERP work, including the essence of response prevention, self-compassion, accountability, a new take on mindfulness, and more on the importance of attitude.
• Discuss ERP homework feedback effectively, appraise clients’ homework and treatment progress, and troubleshoot obstacles that can get in the way of clients successfully doing ERP homework.
• Analyze treatment progress for signs of subtleties that can sabotage clients’ recoveries, including hidden compulsions, self-punishment as a ritual, post-traumatic OCD, technology-focused compulsions, and more.

Workshop Description:

Have you ever found that doing exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP) with clients who have OCD can become a little more complicated than you initially expected … and that you and/or the client end up feeling a little stuck as a result? If so, you’re not alone! The science of ERP, the evidence-based therapy for OCD, is relatively straightforward—clients learn to tolerate uncertainty by repeatedly facing their fears (exposure) without doing compulsions (response prevention). However, the art of implementing ERP is often quite subtle and can make a big difference in a client’s ability to reclaim their lives.

In this workshop, we’ll dive into these subtleties at every stage of treatment so you can set your clients with OCD up for ERP success. We’ll begin with how to thoroughly assess a client’s OCD (and other) symptoms and whether they match the treatment intensity that you offer. We’ll then do a live session-length demo of conducting the first exposure with a client, including why it’s so important to help the client radically shift their relationship with anxiety and OCD and how to interrupt mental rituals that can sabotage the exposure. Next, we’ll talk in detail about the add-ons to ERP that can help clients take their practice to a new level, including self-compassion and a new take on mindfulness for OCD. Since most of a client’s progress comes from doing ERP homework on their own, we’ll cover obstacles clients often face to doing exercises between sessions and how to overcome them. Finally, we’ll review how to address a variety of subtleties that can undermine recovery success, including hidden compulsions and the presence of conditions such as post-traumatic OCD or self-punishment as a ritual, as well as how to instill in clients an ERP lifestyle so they can keep their lives their own once they graduate from therapy.

Presented by: Shala Nicely, LPC, ACERP, CERP-P

Shala Nicely, LPC, is the author of Is Fred in the Refrigerator? Taming OCD and Reclaiming My Life, and coauthor of Everyday Mindfulness for OCD: Tips, Tricks & Skills for Living Joyfully with Jon Hershfield, MFT. She is a counselor and cognitive behavioral therapist in metro Atlanta, GA, specializing in the treatment of OCD, anxiety disorders, and the dynamic co-morbidity between trauma/PTSD and OCD. Over the past decade, Shala has given numerous talks on OCD and its treatment at national conferences and was the keynote speaker for the 2013 IOCDF national conference. She sends the Shoulders Back! Tips & Resources for Taming OCD newsletter to thousands of subscribers each month and writes several blogs, including one for Psychology Today that offers an inside perspective on life with OCD. She has also recently finished writing her first mystery novel—featuring a crime-solving protagonist who has OCD—about the true price of secrets we keep from ourselves.

Workshop Schedule (Eastern Time):

• 10:00am - 10:30am | Sign-In and Welcome
• 10:30am - 12:00pm | Session
• 12:00pm - 12:10pm | Break
• 12:10pm - 1:40pm | Session
• 1:40pm - 2:20pm | Lunch Break
• 2:20pm - 3:50pm | Session
• 3:50pm - 4:00pm | Break
• 4:00pm - 5:30pm | Session
• 5:30pm | Continuing Education Certificates Available

6 Core CE Clock Hours Included - Details by License Type Below:

• PSYCHOLOGISTS: The Knowledge Tree is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Knowledge Tree maintains responsibility for this program and its content. For more detailed information on the current CE ruling in Georgia, or if you are licensed in another state or country, please click here.
• COUNSELORS: The Knowledge Tree has been approved by the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP), ACEP No. 7153. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The Knowledge Tree is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Please click here for more detailed information.
• SOCIAL WORKERS: TKT has applied for approval for this workshop through the Georgia Society for Clinical Social Work (GSCSW). If you are licensed in another state or country, please click here for more detailed information.
• MARRIAGE & FAMILY THERAPISTS: TKT has applied for approval for this workshop through the Georgia Association for Marriage & Family Therapy (GAMFT). If you are licensed in another state or country, please click here for more detailed information.

To view our various workshop policies, including our multi-workshop discount & refund policy, please click here.

We are an approved vendor for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for easy reimbursement of educational expenses for VA employees.

Neither the Knowledge Tree nor its speakers have received any commercial support for this program or its contents and will not receive any commercial support prior to or during this program.