A clinical record built for exposure and response prevention.
Generic behavioural health EHRs have nowhere to put the data that makes ERP work, so it ends up in spreadsheets beside the chart. chERP OCD keeps the hierarchy, the exposure trials and the homework in the record itself — and builds the progress note from them.
What ERP therapy software is
ERP therapy software is a clinical record designed around exposure and response prevention, the first-line behavioural treatment for OCD. It differs from a general behavioural health EHR by storing what ERP actually produces: a fear hierarchy, each client’s own SUDS anchors, trial-by-trial distress ratings within an exposure, response prevention instructions, ritual logs, and homework adherence.
Those structures are not a nicety. Without them a clinician cannot see whether a client is habituating within a session, whether expectancy is shifting between sessions, or whether the homework that drives most of the change is actually being done.
Three things a general EHR gets wrong
Each of these is something your clinicians are already working around.
1. It treats SUDS as an absolute scale
A 60 means whatever each client calibrated it to mean. Ratings are not comparable between clients, and only comparable over time for one client if their anchors were recorded. Most systems store a bare number.
chERP OCD makes each person’s own 0, 50 and 100 anchors first-class on the hierarchy, and the intake form asks the client for them in their own words. Willingness is recorded separately from distress, because a client can be highly distressed and highly willing — and that pairing is what predicts progress.
Core fear: Bad Mom · 0 Beach trips · 50 Blood pressure cuff · 100 ER visit
2. It allows copy-pasted group notes
Duplicated narrative across members of the same group session is the most common documentation failure in group practice, and a reliable way to fail a payer audit. Almost every system permits it.
On signature, chERP OCD checks that each member’s participation, response to intervention, homework and plan are present, substantive, and not a copy of another member’s note from that session — caught by exact match and by token similarity, so changing a name and a comma does not get through. It is a refusal, not a warning. A warning you can click through is not a control.
3. It turns documentation into transcription
When nothing structured is captured during the session, the note is written afterwards from memory. chERP OCD captures the exposure as it happens — timer, trial-by-trial SUDS, expectancy before and after, response prevention adherence — then assembles the progress note from that record, plus ritual logs, homework and measures.
The clinician edits and signs. Nothing files itself.
chERP OCD compared with a general behavioural health EHR
| Capability | General EHR | chERP OCD |
|---|---|---|
| Fear hierarchy as structured data | Free text | Versioned, with RP and feared outcome |
| Client-specific SUDS anchors | Not modelled | First-class on the hierarchy |
| Trial-by-trial exposure capture | Single note field | Live recorder with timer |
| Expectancy violation | Not captured | Computed pre/post |
| Willingness separate from distress | Not modelled | Both, before and after |
| Ritual logging with frequency view | Free text | Typed, with 14-day view |
| Homework adherence | Narrative | Per-repetition, with peak SUDS |
| Duplicate group notes | Permitted | Blocked at signature |
| Note built from session data | Typed afterwards | Assembled, then edited and signed |
What else is in it
Measurement-based care
EPDS and GAD-7 with full item sets, reverse scoring, and risk flags that surface on the caseload rather than inside one tab.
Scheduling and admissions
Conflict and out-of-hours warnings, recurring appointments, no-show tracking, and an enquiry pipeline that converts to a chart in one step.
Client portal
Clients log homework repetitions and complete forms between sessions. Homework and forms only — never the chart.
Worksheet import
Hierarchies import and export as CSV and round-trip without loss, including free-text dates and unrated items.
Treatment planning
Plans with objectives, ASAM assessments, and mental status examination gating on signature. A signed plan is superseded, never edited.
Supervision
Supervisors see their supervisees’ caseloads to co-sign, and nothing beyond them.
Security and HIPAA
No software is HIPAA compliant on its own. Compliance belongs to your practice and covers your training, policies, devices and physical security as well as your software. chERP OCD is a business associate: we sign a BAA with your practice before you send us anything, and the agreement sets out exactly which obligations are ours and which remain yours.
| Control | How it works |
|---|---|
| Access control | Clinicians see their own caseload, groups they facilitate, and supervisees. Denied by default, enforced server-side. |
| Two-factor authentication | Required. An account without a second factor reaches nothing. |
| Emergency access | Time-boxed to 60 minutes, written reason, capped per clinician per day, alerted and reviewed. |
| Audit trail | Every read, write and signature hash-chained, so altering history is detectable rather than merely discouraged. |
| Practice isolation | No practice can see another’s clients, staff or enquiries. Emergency access does not cross that boundary. |
| Encryption | TLS in transit; AES-256 at rest, including backups. |
| Backup and recovery | Daily backups, 30-day retention, point-in-time recovery, and restores that are tested rather than assumed. |
Common questions
What is ERP therapy software?
A clinical record system designed around exposure and response prevention, the first-line behavioural treatment for OCD. Unlike a general behavioural health EHR it stores the structures ERP produces: a fear hierarchy, each client’s own subjective units of distress anchors, trial-by-trial distress ratings within an exposure, response prevention instructions, ritual logs, and homework adherence.
Why do general EHRs not work well for exposure therapy?
They have no field for a fear hierarchy, so it lives in a spreadsheet outside the record. They treat a SUDS rating as one number rather than a series across an exposure, losing the within-session and between-session trajectories that show whether learning is occurring. And they have nowhere to record expectancy before and after an exposure, which is what inhibitory learning models actually rely on.
Why do SUDS ratings need client-specific anchors?
SUDS is not an absolute scale. A 60 means whatever the client calibrated it to mean, so ratings are not comparable between clients and only comparable over time for one client if the anchors are recorded. chERP OCD makes each client’s own 0, 50 and 100 anchors first-class on the hierarchy, and the intake form asks the client for them directly.
How should group ERP sessions be documented?
Each member needs an individualised note covering their own participation, response to the intervention, homework assigned and plan. Copy-pasting one member’s narrative into another’s is the most common documentation failure in group practice and a reliable way to fail a payer audit. chERP OCD refuses the signature when a narrative is blank, too short, or matches another member’s note from the same session — detected by exact match and by similarity.
Is chERP OCD HIPAA compliant?
No software is HIPAA compliant on its own, and any vendor claiming otherwise is describing something that does not exist. Compliance belongs to the practice. chERP OCD is a business associate: it signs a BAA with each practice, enforces access control, two-factor authentication, encryption in transit and at rest, a tamper-evident audit log and per-practice isolation, and will share its risk analysis on request.
Can it import hierarchies we already keep in spreadsheets?
Yes. Hierarchy worksheets import and export as CSV and round-trip without loss, including free-text dates and unrated items, which are kept and parked rather than dropped. Importing starts a new version of the ladder and keeps the previous one, because a hierarchy is clinical history.
Can clients log homework between sessions?
Yes. Invited clients sign in to a portal showing the exposures assigned to them and the forms to complete, and log each repetition with the peak distress it reached. The portal reaches homework and forms only, never the chart.
How do we get started?
Email hello@cherpocd.com. The fastest way to judge it is to bring a hierarchy worksheet you already use and watch it import. We sign a BAA before any client information reaches the system.