Cognitive Behavioral Therapy & ERP Therapy for Hypochondria and Illness Anxiety Disorder | Serving Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, and Beyond.

Many people with Illness Anxiety Disorder spend years misunderstanding their symptoms or receiving treatment that never targets the cycle maintaining their fear. In our first sessions, I’ll complete a thorough assessment to understand your specific health worries, the sensations that trigger anxiety, and the compulsions—like checking, Googling, or seeking reassurance—that keep the cycle going. From there, we’ll establish a clear diagnosis and build a structured CBT and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) plan tailored to your symptoms, patterns, and goals.

In our first few sessions, I’ll provide clear psychoeducation so you understand not just your symptoms, but the “why” behind treatment. We’ll go over how Illness Anxiety Disorder works, how the fear–checking–reassurance cycle is maintained, and what’s actually happening in your brain and body when health anxiety spikes. I’ll also explain how CBT and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) interrupt that cycle and help retrain your brain to interpret sensations with less fear and urgency. Having this knowledge up front builds confidence, reduces the fear of normal bodily sensations, and gives you a clear, structured roadmap for recovery.

Once you have a clear understanding of Illness Anxiety Disorder and how ERP works, we’ll build a structured list of your specific triggers—sensations, thoughts, images, situations, and fears—ranked from least to most anxiety-provoking. The goal is to help you gradually face what you typically avoid or monitor, in a way that feels doable and effective. Together, we’ll design a combination of exposures such as noticing and observing bodily sensations, reading feared medical words, viewing medical imagery, delaying checking or reassurance, and intentionally bringing up uncertainty. This creates a treatment plan that’s practical, personalized, and focused on building lasting change.

We’ll choose specific exercises from your hierarchy to practice during sessions, so I can coach and support you in real time as you face anxiety-provoking thoughts, sensations, and urges. This might include noticing and sitting with normal bodily sensations, reading feared medical words, viewing medical images, or delaying the urge to check or seek reassurance. I’ll guide you in how to stay with the discomfort without engaging in safety behaviors like Googling, monitoring, or mentally analyzing symptoms. With this support, you’ll learn how to let anxiety rise and fall naturally. Over time, these exposures retrain your brain, reduce the fear attached to sensations and uncertainty, and build lasting confidence in your ability to trust your body and move through daily life without constant worry.

Homework exposures are an essential part of treatment for Illness Anxiety Disorder. These exercises help you apply what you’ve learned in session to the real thoughts, sensations, and situations that trigger fear in daily life. I’ll assign variations of the exposures we practice together—such as noticing bodily sensations without checking, reading feared medical words, delaying reassurance seeking, viewing medical images, or intentionally bringing up uncertainty—so you can continue building tolerance outside of session. Each assignment is tailored to your specific triggers and designed to reduce checking, interrupt reassurance habits, and strengthen the progress you make between sessions. Over time, these exercises help you feel less controlled by health anxiety and more grounded, confident, and free in your daily life.

Throughout treatment, we’ll track your progress using standard assessments for Illness Anxiety Disorder and adjust your plan as your symptoms improve. As checking decreases, avoidance fades, and your tolerance for uncertainty grows, we’ll shift the focus toward maintaining your gains and preventing relapse—essentially helping you become your own therapist when it comes to managing health anxiety and responding effectively to triggers. By the end of therapy, you’ll have the tools, skills, and confidence to navigate sensations, thoughts, and medical uncertainty independently and sustain your progress long-term.