If you work with children and adolescents struggling with anxiety disorders, you know how crucial it is to keep refining your approach to treatment. Today, we want to highlight the Inhibitory Learning Model (ILM) — an evidence-based framework that offers a nuanced understanding of exposure therapy and its effectiveness. Traditionally, exposure therapy has been viewed through the lens of fear extinction, where the goal is to reduce a young person’s fear response over repeated exposure to a feared stimulus. However, the research has not always supported this perspective on why ERP is effective. Enter the Inhibitory Learning Model — a paradigm shift that focuses on helping clients develop new, non-fear-based associations with anxiety-provoking stimuli.
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