OCD
I am passionate about helping individuals break free from the complex cycles of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). I am a member of both the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) and the Association of I-CBT Providers.
I provide specialized OCD treatment designed for those who are ready to move beyond managing symptoms and start reclaiming their lives. I utilize targeted modalities including Inference-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) to make recovery from OCD more manageable and effective.
Many of my OCD clients seek me out for I-CBT specifically, as this treatment is effective, empowering and engaging for those who did not respond well to exposure, prefer not to incorporate exposures, or tend to have more “Pure O” and rumination symptoms of OCD.
How It Works:
I-CBT (The Logic): This structured, 12-module framework empowers clients to use logic and insight to understand the tricks of the OCD “conman”.
Self-Trust over Self-Doubt: Once you’ve learned how these tricks work, those intrusive thoughts start to lose their power and the empowering journey to choose self-trust over self-doubt begins.
Strategic Exposure: For clients who want to try exposure, I-CBT provides a powerful foundation of confidence, making ERP feel manageable rather than overwhelming.
This is a targeted, structured treatment and differs from traditional talk therapy.
Specialized and targeted treatment for OCD.
Here’s a little more information about what to expect in therapy for OCD:
Intake and Assessment
The first few sessions will be about exploring your background, symptoms and presenting problems. I will also administer OCD assessments that help us understand your OCD better and assess for themes, subtypes and compulsions.
Understanding OCD
OCD treatment often requires a lot of psychoeducation - which is a fancy word for teaching clients about how OCD works and how treatment works. We’ll spend time helping you understand the “anatomy” of OCD, how it manifests and why targeted OCD treatments work.
Targeted Treatment
Depending on the type of OCD and the preferences for treatment, we will begin either I-CBT or ERP. Both are highly effective and evidence based treatments for OCD. Both are more structured than typical talk therapy.
Collaboration with Care Team
For clients who use medication or are interested in starting medication for OCD, I will collaborate with your psychiatrist to ensure we are aligned on treatment.
Common Questions About Therapy for OCD
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The most well-supported treatments for OCD are Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT). In ERP, you gradually face the thoughts and situations that trigger your OCD while practicing not doing the compulsion that usually follows. I-CBT works differently. It looks at the reasoning behind obsessive doubt, which can be a great fit if you didn’t respond well to exposure, prefer not to do exposures, or deal mostly with mental compulsions and rumination.
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Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT) is an evidence-based approach that looks at how obsessional doubt gets built in the first place. Instead of facing fears through exposures, we look at the reasoning that makes a doubt feel believable and help you notice when your mind has moved away from what’s actually in front of you. It can be a great fit for people who haven’t responded to ERP, who find exposures too overwhelming, or whose OCD is very doubt-driven.
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In general, anxiety tends to focus on real-life worries and feels like a lot of “what ifs” about things that could happen. OCD tends to involve intrusive thoughts that feel strange or out of character, plus a need to do something (a compulsion) to cancel them out or feel 100% certain. The clearest difference is the OCD “cycle”: obsession, a spike of distress, a compulsion, brief relief, and then the thought comes back stronger. This distinction matters because the treatment is different. Strategies that help with general anxiety, like reassurance and talking yourself out of the worry, can make OCD worse. In my approach, I use standardized assessment tools to assess for OCD symptoms, themes and compulsions.
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Many people start noticing real improvement within about 12 to 20 weekly sessions of treatment, but treatment length can vary based on severity of symptoms, presence of multiple themes and how much clients able to practice between sessions. Some people feel like they have a solid handle on things in 6 months to one year, while others benefit from long-term support or occasional check-ins to keep their progress.
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It’s really common for people with OCD to have had therapy that didn’t help in the past, often because the approach wasn’t OCD-specific. Regular talk therapy can sometimes accidentally feed OCD by offering reassurance or digging into the content of the thoughts. A specialized approach like ERP or I-CBT works differently and targets OCD symptoms and teaches clients how to recognize OCD thoughts and behaviors, and respond with confidence and clarity.
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OCD can show up in lots of ways, and the theme can change over time. Some common ones are contamination fears, harm-related intrusive thoughts, relationship OCD, “just right” or symmetry OCD, health-related OCD, scrupulosity (moral or religious doubt), and sexual orientation or identity-related OCD. Having an unusual theme doesn’t make your OCD more serious or less treatable. The treatment approach is the same underlying process no matter what your OCD is about.
Let’s Connect
For all services, I offer a free 15 minute phone consultation to assess for fit and answer any questions you may have about working with me. There is never any pressure to book a session from a consult.