Help Your Clients Face Their Fears: High-Impact CBT Strategies for Successful Exposure Therapy

Course Description:

Exposure therapy can be one of the most powerful and effective tools for helping clients overcome anxiety. But many therapists hesitate to use it - or struggle to make it work - because clients may feel resistant, fearful, ambivalent, or unwilling to fully engage in the process. 

 

When exposure is introduced before laying the necessary groundwork, clients may avoid the assignment, drop out, or complete the exercise without experiencing meaningful change. For exposure therapy to be successful, clients often need careful preparation, strong motivation, and a clear understanding of the thoughts and fears that keep them stuck. 

 

In this free 1-hour CE webinar, Mike Christensen, MACP, Level 5 TEAM-CBT Master Trainer and Therapist and Global Clinical Director of the Feeling Good Institute, will teach and demonstrate high-impact CBT strategies therapists can use to help clients become more ready and willing to face their fears. 

 

You'll learn practical ways to overcome resistance, strengthen motivation, identify the core anxious thoughts that drive avoidance, and set up exposure exercises that are targeted, collaborative, and meaningful. 

 

Rather than simply asking clients to "do exposure," this webinar will show you how to prepare clients for exposure in a way that increases engagement, reduces avoidance, and helps them experience more powerful learning. 

 

This webinar is designed for therapists who want to sharpen their CBT skills and feel more confident helping anxious clients move from avoidance to action. 

 

 

What You'll Gain:

 

Help Clients Become Ready for Exposure

Learn how to prepare clients before beginning behavioral work by addressing ambivalence, fear, and resistance in a collaborative and compassionate way. 

 

Strengthen Motivation and Reduce Avoidance

Discover how motivational strategies can help clients connect with their deeper reasons for change and become more willing to face the fears they have been avoiding. 

 

Identify the Anxious Thoughts Driving the Problem

Learn how to pinpoint the specific thoughts, predictions, and fears that fuel avoidance and distress, so exposure exercises are focused and meaningful. 

 

Make Exposure More Targeted and Effective

See how to design exposure exercises that directly test anxious predictions, reduce avoidance, and create opportunities for emotioinal learning. 

 

Use CBT Strategies with Greater Clinical Confidence

Learn how motivational, cognitive, and behavioral strategies can work together to help clients overcome anxiety more effectively. 

 

Improve Patient Outcomes Through Better Preparation

Gain a practical framework for helping clients engage more fully in exposure therapy, so they are more likely to follow through and experience meaningful change. 

 

Learning Objectives:

 

Upon completion of this webinar, participants will be able to:

 

1. Explain the rationale for exposure therapy in the treatment of anxiety.
2. Identify one CBT strategy for preparing clients to engage more effectively in exposure therapy. 

 

Training Details:

 

Date: Wednesday, August 5, 2026
Time: 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PT / 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET
CE Credit: 1 Continuing Education Credit available
Cost: Free
Open to: Therapists, mental health professionals, and the general public

Can’t attend live? Register anyway to access the recording so you can earn your CE on-demand at your own pace. (available on-demand 8/12/26)

 

 

Instructor Bios:

 

Mike Christensen, MACP is a Level 5 TEAM-CBT Master Trainer and Therapist and Global Clinical Director at Feeling Good Institute.

 

Mike is a respected mentor, teacher, and global TEAM-CBT leader known for helping therapists strengthen their skills and deepen their confidence. His teaching focuses on translating powerful CBT concepts into practical strategies therapists can use immediately in their clinical work.

 

Mike’s specialties include anxiety, depression, and habits and addictions. He holds a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology and is a Registered Clinical Counselor with the British Columbia Association of Clinical Counselors.

 

In this webinar, Mike will teach and demonstrate practical CBT strategies for helping anxious clients become more ready, willing, and able to face their fears through successful exposure therapy.