In this section, you learned about putting yourself into situations that you may have avoided all together because of the distress they caused or that you endured with distress. You learned to build a hierarchy of feared/distressing situations, to do some cognitive reappraising before you go into an exposure exercise, to stay in the situation until your distress started to come down, and hopefully, you also learned that you can cope with these situations while experiencing your emotions.
Your homework is to:
- Build at least one exposure hierarchy, depending on how many situations cause you distress or that you avoid.
- Choose one or two exercise to practice, using the cognitive reappraisal form to identify and counter thinking traps.
- Repeat the same exercises at least 3 to 5 times over a few days, not moving on to another level until your distress decreases to at least 20 and you feel comfortable and ready to move forward.
- Complete the Exposure Practice Form.