Boldly You
Psychotherapy
Take your life back from OCD
If you’re looking for a trustworthy and comprehensive source of information about what OCD is, I would direct you to the International OCD Foundation website.
I am guessing though, that if you have found your way to my website, you already know what OCD is, and you already know that you have it.
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Let me tell you about my experience working with people with OCD.
I have worked with children, adolescents, and adults with OCD, from various cultural backgrounds and socioeconomic statuses.
I’ve worked with people with mild, moderate, and severe symptoms of OCD, people who are managing to function quite well, and people whose daily functioning is very impaired.
Most of the people with OCD I have worked with have simultaneously been struggling with another mental health concern, such as anxiety, depression, a BFRB (body-focused repetitive behavior, such as hair pulling or skin picking), tic disorder, OCPD (obsessive compulsive personality disorder), or eating disorder.
I have worked with people with many different themes of obsessive or intrusive thoughts, such as contamination, responsibility, perfectionism, harm, sex, identity, and religion.
And I’ve seen countless examples of compulsive behaviors. Rigid rules that people follow about what they must do, must not do, can only do in a certain way, at a certain time, or a certain number of times. Checking, cleaning, re-doing, un-doing, counting, and confessing, to name a few.
For many of my clients, I was the first one or only one to whom they had shared the details of their OCD symptoms. It is very common for people with OCD to feel embarrassment or shame about their thoughts and behavior, and many people suffer in silence for years before seeking professional help.
What I want you to know is: If you have OCD, you are not alone. There are professionals out here, people like me, who understand what OCD is and who know how to help.
My therapy approach blends Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
For OCD treatment, this commonly includes:
Mapping your specific obsessive/intrusive thoughts, emotional/physiological experiences, and compulsive behaviors onto the OCD cycle to get clear about how this process looks for you
Taking a comprehensive look across the domains of your life to fully grasp how OCD is manifesting and the ways it is interfering with your life
Exploring your personal history and background, clarifying your personal values, what is important to you, and what you are striving for in your life
Coming up with creative, targeted plans to expose yourself to the unwanted thoughts and images on purpose, feeling the discomfort this brings on, and refraining from engaging in compulsive behavior
Practicing noticing when your attention has drifted to future worries or ruminating on the past and shifting your attention back to the here and now
Changing how you relate to your own thoughts and feelings, in part by experiencing them as they are and resisting the urge to stop them, change them, or figure them out
