Emotion Regulation Therapy

The program that you are joining is called Emotion Regulation Therapy, or ERT for short.  It is a treatment we have developed over the past twenty years, and its efficacy has been shown now in multiple published clinical trials and other published studies that reflect the model of distress upon which ERT is built. In this handout, we wish to describe the expectations and responsibilities of this program to help give you a sense of what you can expect and what will be expected of you.

What is a manualized treatment?

ERT is a manualized treatment, consisting of twelve sessions, once weekly, over twelve weeks.  A manualized treatment means that the material to be discussed is planned out in advance.  Likewise, the exercises that your therapist may give you to complete in the days between sessions are worked out in advance.  We have developed ERT as a manualized treatment so that all the patients who enroll in the study get essentially the same treatment.  The material in ERT has been selected for its relevance to anxiety and depression. All sessions are 60 minutes in duration.

Patient Expectations & Responsibilities

Getting the most out of ERT

A manualized psychotherapy, in some ways, is like a course of antibiotics that a doctor might give you to fight an infection.  As a doctor will tell you, it’s very important for you to take the medication as directed and until you have taken ALL the medication.  Sometimes with antibiotics, we feel better almost immediately and are tempted to stop taking our medication.  Other times, the antibiotic might make us feel worse or have side-effects, also tempting us to stop taking it.  The important thing is to finish the medication so we get the full dose; otherwise, the infection might come back.  The same ideas apply to a manualized treatment like ERT so that you get the full dose of our treatment and the best chance of overcoming your chronic anxiety and depression mood. So, keeping the idea of an antibiotic in mind, some of the expectations of patients in ERT include:

• Regular attendance. Your therapist will schedule weekly meetings with you, and it is our hope that you will do your best to attend every session on a weekly basis.
• Completion of between-session exercises.  ERT includes exercises that are meant to teach you new skills and ways to manage your emotional distress. Please do your best to complete these exercises, as the therapy is most effective when it becomes part of your daily life rather than solely part of our weekly meeting.
• Focus on problems related to emotional distress. ERT is tailored to emotional distress, though we are aware that people sometimes have additional difficulties in their lives.  We will consider those other difficulties as they come up and make clinically responsible choices about your care; but for the most part, we will need to keep our focus on emotional distress.

Therapist Expectations & Responsibilities

• Background of your therapist. Your ERT therapist is a PhD psychologist or a PhD candidate in clinical psychology who has received specialized training with one of the founders of ERT.  Your therapist is also receiving regular supervision with a founder of ERT about your care and progress in the therapy.
• Covering all the material. Each session, your therapist has a a lot of material to cover.  So, at times, she or he may need to move on from a discussion so that all the scheduled material gets covered.