Exposure therapy is a well-known and effective strategy for reducing symptoms of anxiety disorders. However, directly confronting the object of one’s fears can be extremely distressing. New research suggests that a “very brief exposure” (VBE) therapy may be equally effective with a lower burden of distress. Researchers exposed a group of young women with arachnophobia to a rapidly-changing set of images that included hidden images of spiders. Although the images appeared too quickly for participants to consciously detect, VBE reduced avoidance responses when participants were later presented with a live spider. To learn more, see the study in The Lancet.