What Exposure Therapy Actually Feels Like (The Mentos/Jelly Bean Exercise)

In this episode of Breaking the Rules, we do something a little different — we guide you through a live experiential exercise used in therapy to demonstrate how Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) actually feels in the moment.

Using a simple jelly bean (or Mentos), we walk through an exercise that highlights one of the most important lessons in OCD treatment: the urge to escape discomfort can be powerful, but it can also be tolerated.

Through this exercise, we explore how quickly the mind and body react to discomfort, how intrusive thoughts and urges show up, and how reconnecting with meaning and values can shift our relationship with those experiences.

Experiential exercises like this are commonly used in ACT, DBT, and ERP therapy because they allow people to learn through doing, rather than just talking about the skills intellectually.

In this episode we discuss:

• What experiential exercises are and why they are powerful in therapy
• Why learning skills during calm moments is different from using them during triggers
• The Mentos (or jelly bean) exercise used to simulate urge surfing and response prevention
• What happens in the mind and body when discomfort rises
• Intrusive thoughts, urges, and the instinct to escape discomfort
• The role of meaning and values in increasing distress tolerance
• Why acceptance changes our relationship to discomfort, not the discomfort itself
• How clinicians can use this exercise with clients, families, and teen group.

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