Ok! Here's a great way to completely fuck yourself up: Constantly compare yourself to a picture in your mind that you think you should be (your ideal spiritual brain-washed true-self hero image) and then beat yourself up because you will never come close to it. One of the principle components of EC psychology is self-acceptance. This idea does not appear to have hit you yet, and you seem to be in major unconscious self-rejection. The challenge in EC and authentic spiritual work is to be present with WHAT IS, not to be focused on the delusional idealized future. I suggest you go through the books again with this in mind and work on self-acceptance for a few months. You resolve your issues and grow organically and spontaneously into your higher self by surrendering to what is and by dedicating yourself to a long-term meditation - EC practice, clearing all those traumatic events one by one, without concerning yourself with how long it may take.
I have not studied Exposure Therapy and do not know if it is actually a formal school of psychology. However, EC work can be said to be a form of exposure therapy. You sit and visualize the triggering circumstances, and let the feelings come up, and then take them through the steps. You can also engage in physical confrontation to bring up the feelings, if it is an ongoing condition. However, simply exposing yourself to physical confrontation to bring up the feelings is not going to help much to clear those feelings from the subconscious if you simply shut down when the feelings come up, which is likely to happen if you are not ready with an effective strategy to handle the feelings. If Exposure Therapy does not include any such strategy aside from masochistic resignation, I would question the wisdom level of the program. If the exposure is too much, involuntary shut-down and repression will occur, which defeats the purpose or even compounds the problem as you point out. The beauty of EC work is that it gives you a method to integrate the feelings, whatever the context, inner or outer. I would say work mostly inwardly, and be careful with outer exposure, not over-doing it. You can try it after you have felt you have cleared some feelings using the EC process. Actually, I don't think it is even necessary if you have an ongoing meditation-processing practice. You could make a case that inner work is more effective because you are in a witnessing alpha state, able to devote complete attention to the feelings while taking them through the steps, although outer confrontation may have the advantage of generating stronger feelings than you can do in meditation.
Regarding employment, you are expected to be nervous when applying for a job. Nobody will hold that against you if you have talents, and everybody else including the people who interview you are just as tormented as you - that can be a helpful thought to keep in mind as you face them, similar to the cardboard cutout idea in the Emotional Clearing book. Don't worry so much about yourself and just go do it.
