Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder characterized by distressing thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead to compulsive and repetitive behaviors (compulsions). People with OCD have lost flexibility and freedom in their lives, often suffering from a sense of isolation and shame.
Common OCD-Related Concerns I help treat:
Harm OCD: Repetitive, often violent intrusive thoughts of harming others or oneself.
Contamination: Consistent fears being contaminated or defiled by toxins, germs, bodily fluids (often manifesting with health anxiety).
Health Anxiety/OCD: Fear of having and/or contracting illness.
Scrupulosity: Religious or moral obsessions.
Sexual Orientation (often “HOCD”) and Pedophilia OCD (pOCD): Fear of being the wrong sexual orientation, being attracted to children, or being perverse.
“Just Right” and Symmetry OCD: Anxious fixation on misalignment, incompletion, asymmetry, and things not being quite right.
Panic OCD: Chronic fear of losing nervous system control and having a panic attack.
Severe social anxiety and avoidance behaviors.
To treat OCD, I employ Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) that, over time, helps to free individuals from longstanding patterns of avoidance and compulsive behavior. ERP is a form of behavioral therapy that has been proven in research studies to be the most effective therapy in the treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
Perhaps more than most, people with OCD know that we cannot always control our thoughts and feelings. And yet OCD enslaves persons in an excruciating and ultimately futile attempt to prevent certain thoughts and forms of distress from arising. Unless it is directly confronted, this pattern of experiential avoidance tends to consume more and more of the person’s life over time.
ERP for OCD is a ‘facing your fears’ approach. Facing the fears of OCD requires courage, willingness, self-compassion and often a great deal of support. The principle underlying ERP is called “habituation”: if we are exposed to something with enough frequency, we eventually get used to it, or to “habituate” to it. In ERP therapy, the client and I create opportunities—often called “exposures”—that allow for repeated exposure to feared objects or thoughts. We also set a strong intention and offer tremendous encouragement for the client to refrain from engaging in rituals or compulsions during the exposure. Over time, this therapeutic process leads to the unbinding of OCD associations and freedom from anxiety, guilt, shame and distress.
If you or a loved one is struggling with OCD, our work together can be liberating.