Title: Emotional Processing Therapy for Anxiety Related Disorders: The Case of PTSD Abstract: In this presentation I will discuss emotional processing theory (EPT) that explains the psychopathology and treatment of anxiety disorders, with a focus on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I will introduce the conceptualization of fear and other emotions as memory structures and suggest that anxiety disorders reflect the presence of specific pathological negative emotion structures. In this context, I will suggest that PTSD reflects the presence of a pathological emotion (e.g., fear) structure in which safe stimuli representations are associated with the meaning of “danger”, and normal responses to trauma are associated with the meaning of “self-incompetence”. Accordingly, erroneous cognitions such as “the world is extremely dangerous” and “I am extremely weak and incompetent” underlie the development and maintenance of PTSD. Next, I will describe exposure therapy and discuss the mechanisms involved in its efficacy for anxiety disorders. According to EPT, successful symptom reduction reflects modification of the underlying emotional structure (i.e., emotional processing) and requires two conditions: 1) activation (emotional engagement) of the pathological fear structure, and 2) availability of information that disconfirms the pathological elements in the structure (i.e., change in negative pathological cognitions). Originally, EPT proposed three indicators of emotional processing (i.e., treatment success): fear activation (emotional engagement), within-session habituation (i.e., reduction in distress from the peak to the end of the exposure session), and between-session habituation (i.e., reduction of peak distress levels across successive exposure sessions). These indicators, along with changes in negative cognitions, have been hypothesized to be associated with successful outcome. Throughout my lecture, I will revisit the original suppositions and hypotheses that emerged from EPT based on research from both animal models and clinical trials, providing an updated account of EPT and its implications for treatment. Finally, I will discuss the limitations of EPT, and theoretical and empirical directions that will move the field forward.