Your Anxiety Toolkit - Practical Skills for Anxiety, Panic & Depression
Aug 5, 2026 · 34 min · 12 segments
In this episode, I explore how adding DBT skills to ERP can help you tolerate overwhelming emotions, stay engaged in treatment, and move toward lasting OCD recovery with greater confidence and…
Rebecca De LeonGuestAnd if you're watching this or listening, there is a very good chance that you also know that ERP is not easy.
Maybe you're thinking, "I tried it, and I just could not do it." Maybe the distress felt absolutely and completely unmanageable as you practiced ERP, and maybe you just completely shut down when you tried it.
Maybe you left feeling like you were too broken for the specific treatment that was supposed to help you.
She is a DBT specialist and an ERP therapist who works in my private practice here in California in Los Angeles.
She is an incredible therapist, and she works every day with people who have been hit with exactly this concern when they're practicing ERP.
They feel like they just don't have the skills, and their emotions are just too strong.
Rebecca teaches us that ERP is still the destination, but we need something first.
We need skills to be able to tolerate the distress of ERP, and that is where DBT comes in.
It's to use before ERP, alongside ERP, and as the thing that makes ERP manageable in those moments when it feels like absolutely impossible.
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And if you're watching this or listening, there is a very good chance that you also know that ERP is not easy.
Maybe you're thinking, "I tried it, and I just could not do it." Maybe the distress felt absolutely and completely unmanageable as you practiced ERP, and maybe you just completely shut down when you tried it.
Maybe you left feeling like you were too broken for the specific treatment that was supposed to help you.
She is a DBT specialist and an ERP therapist who works in my private practice here in California in Los Angeles.
She is an incredible therapist, and she works every day with people who have been hit with exactly this concern when they're practicing ERP.
They feel like they just don't have the skills, and their emotions are just too strong.
Rebecca teaches us that ERP is still the destination, but we need something first.
We need skills to be able to tolerate the distress of ERP, and that is where DBT comes in.
It's to use before ERP, alongside ERP, and as the thing that makes ERP manageable in those moments when it feels like absolutely impossible.