Experiential Training for Community Therapists

The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of employing
an experiential training approach that targets community mental health therapists' attitudes
toward and use of exposure therapy. In addition to assessing attitudes and use of exposure
therapy, the study will evaluate the feasibility of recruitment, randomization, retention,
and assessment processes, as well as the acceptability of the experiential training relative
to training-as-usual. To assess these outcomes, community therapists will be randomized to
experiential training or training-as-usual. A subset of therapists from each arm will also
complete qualitative interviews to further assess acceptability of the training approaches.
The training-as-usual condition will include a traditional one-day workshop that focuses on
principles of exposure and incorporates active learning strategies. The experiential training
will include a one-day workshop that teaches principles of exposure and has therapists
themselves undergo a one-session phobia treatment for spiders. Therapists in both training
conditions will be asked to attend weekly consultation phone calls for a three-month period
following the trainings.