Improving Exposure Therapy: Rationale and Design of an International Consortium

Jasper A J Smits; Jonathan S Abramowitz; Joanna J Arch; Santiago Papini; Rebecca A Anderson; Laura J Dixon; Bronwyn M Graham; Stefan G Hofmann; Jürgen Hoyer; Jonathan D Huppert; Jolene Jacquart; David Johnson; Peter M McEvoy; Dean McKay; Jill Newby; Michael W Otto; Andre Pittig; Winfried Rief; David Rosenfield; Kiara R Timpano; Andre Wannemüller; Exposure Therapy Consortium

doi:10.1016/j.psc.2024.02.008

Improving Exposure Therapy: Rationale and Design of an International Consortium

Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2024 Jun;47(2):433-444. doi: 10.1016/j.psc.2024.02.008. Epub 2024 Mar 19.

Authors

Jasper A J Smits¹, Jonathan S Abramowitz², Joanna J Arch³, Santiago Papini⁴, Rebecca A Anderson⁵, Laura J Dixon⁶, Bronwyn M Graham⁷, Stefan G Hofmann⁸, Jürgen Hoyer⁹, Jonathan D Huppert¹⁰, Jolene Jacquart¹¹, David Johnson¹², Peter M McEvoy¹³, Dean McKay¹⁴, Jill Newby¹⁵, Michael W Otto¹⁶, Andre Pittig¹⁷, Winfried Rief¹⁸, David Rosenfield¹⁹, Kiara R Timpano²⁰, Andre Wannemüller²¹; Exposure Therapy Consortium

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, Mail Code A8000, Austin, TX 78712, USA. Electronic address: smits@utexas.edu.
² Department of Psychology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Campus Box 3270, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
³ Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁴ Department of Psychology, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, 2530 Dole Street, Sakamaki C400, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
⁵ School of Population Health and enAble Institute, Curtin University, Bentley, Western Australia, 6102 Australia.
⁶ Department of Psychology, University of Mississippi, P.O. Box 1848, University, MS 38677, USA.
⁷ School of Psychology, UNSW Sydney, New South Wales 2052 Australia.
⁸ Department of Psychology, University of Marburg, Marburg 35032, Germany.
⁹ Technische Universität Dresden, Germany.
¹⁰ Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, 91905 Israel.
¹¹ Department of Psychology, The University of Arizona, 1503 E. University Boulevard, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
¹² Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, 4235 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
¹³ Centre for Clinical Interventions, Perth, Western Australia 6000, Australia.
¹⁴ Department of Psychology, Fordham University, 441 East Fordham Road, Bronx, NY 10458-5198, USA.
¹⁵ School of Psychology, UNSW Sydney at the Black Dog Institute, Hospital Road, Randwick, New South Wales 2031, Australia.
¹⁶ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, 64 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
¹⁷ Translational Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, University of Goettingen, Germany.
¹⁸ Department of Psychology, University of Marburg, 35032 Marburg, Germany.
¹⁹ Department of Psychology, Southern Methodist University, 6425 Boaz Lane, Dallas TX 75205, USA.
²⁰ Department of Psychology, The University of Miami, 5665 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA.
²¹ Mental Health Research and Treatment Center, Ruhr University Bochum, Massenbergstr. 9-13, Bochum 44787, Germany.

PMID: 38724129
PMCID: PMC11082449 (available on 2025-06-01)
DOI: 10.1016/j.psc.2024.02.008

Abstract

The Exposure Therapy Consortium (ETC) was established to advance the science and practice of exposure therapy. To encourage participation from researchers and clinicians, this article describes the organizational structure and activities of the ETC. Initial research working group experiences and a proof-of-principle study underscore the potential of team science and larger-scale collaborative research in this area. Clinical working groups have begun to identify opportunities to enhance access to helpful resources for implementing exposure therapy effectively. This article discusses directions for expanding the consortium's activities and its impact on a global scale.

Keywords: Exposure therapy; Implementation; Mechanism of action; Moderators; Team science; Treatment.

Improving Exposure Therapy: Rationale and Design of an International Consortium

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding