Priya Patel

About

The myth I would most like to retire is that treating a fear means being thrown into the deep end until you toughen up. That is not treatment. That is just a bad afternoon. Real exposure is collaborative and incremental, and it is designed so that you succeed at each stage before the next one appears. Nothing is sprung on you. You keep the right to stop at any point, which is not a courtesy but a working part of the method. You will have refused things and adjusted the plan long before we reach anything really demanding, and that control is a large part of why it works at all. I worked in crisis services early in my practice, which made me permanently allergic to unnecessary drama. It should feel manageable throughout, and if it stops feeling manageable then we have gone too fast and will say so. If the deep-end story is what kept you away, I would like to correct the record.