A free lecture on inhibitory learning for exposure therapists
- NOCD Academy offers the course free of charge. Enrolment requires a NOCD Academy account and a completed check-out, and the materials stay available for 60 days after registration.
- The course is a 108-minute pre-recorded webinar at intermediate level, originally recorded on 04/22/2025. The presenter is Nicholas Farrell, PhD, Director of Clinical Development & Programming at NOCD and a licensed clinical psychologist.
- According to the course page, it reviews the limitations of habituation-based emotional processing theory, introduces inhibitory learning theory as a different account of how exposure reduces fear, and discusses ILT principles and augmentation strategies in depth, with case examples throughout.
- The course carries 2 CE credits (2 CE hours) through APA sponsor approval, ASWB ACE provider #1805 (approval period 03/25/2026 – 03/25/2029) and NBCC ACEP No. 7212. A certificate requires viewing the entire course and passing a quiz with 75% or greater (70% for a 10-question quiz) within 3 attempts.
Many exposure session notes still record the same three things: peak anxiety, anxiety at the end, and how long it took to drop. That habit comes from emotional processing theory, in which fear falls through habituation. A free course on NOCD Academy, the training site of the US OCD treatment company NOCD, sets inhibitory learning theory (ILT) against that model.
The presenter, Nicholas Farrell, is a licensed clinical psychologist employed by NOCD; the page states that he recorded the talk as part of his duties. The webinar runs 108 minutes. Its three stated objectives are to explain how ILT views fear reduction differently, to describe three or more key ILT principles, and to apply three or more ILT-informed strategies in exposure for fear-based disorders. Access needs an account and lasts 60 days. The 2 CE credits count in US licensing systems; for readers elsewhere, it is a free lecture.
Ending an exposure on what was learned
What follows is my own reading as a practitioner, not a summary of the lecture. If ILT is taken seriously, the success criterion of a session moves. A session in which anxiety stayed high but the feared outcome did not happen may be the useful one. So change the notes. Before the exercise, write down the client's prediction in their own words. After it, write what actually happened and what the client concludes. End the exposure once the prediction has been tested, not once the number has fallen, and close with "what did you find out?" rather than "how anxious are you now?"
A session in which anxiety stayed high but the feared outcome did not happen may be the useful one.
This note is based on the course page; the lecture content is described only as far as the page states it. The presenter is employed by NOCD, a commercial treatment company, as the page discloses. CE acceptance varies by state and jurisdiction, and the page advises checking with the licensing board.