Specialized OCD Treatment for Adults
For those of us stuck in extra interesting thought cycles
Online in San Francisco & all of California,
Massachusetts, New York, and Florida
OCD, and its fellow obsessive-compulsive disorders, can make the smallest tasks feel overwhelming, exhausting, daunting, or dangerous.
And at times, truly shitty. It’s not like you like living this way! You have probably tried to make big changes a few (thousand) times already. If it makes you feel better, I couldn’t figure out how to leave the obsessive-compulsive cycle on my own, and have never heard of anyone else doing it either. The important thing is that when you’re ready, there is an exit strategy just for us.
Welcome to the club!
I have been specializing in OCD and other obsessive-compulsive disorders for several years, but I guess you could say I have a lifetime of experience. Yay, I have them too!
I tried the same treatment I now provide and got way better. From my experience on both sides of the therapy room, I describe exposure and response prevention (ERP) as “therapy that sounds insane and terrifying but isn’t.”
Therapy with me is practical and emotional: you can share any parts of your life to whatever degree works for you, and cry, laugh, and make meaning. Simultaneously, we set clear treatment goals and meet them, using the same gold-standard therapy used by the big names in the OCD and anxiety world.
Exposure & Response Prevention:
Teaching your brain it’s safe to relax
People often assume ERP = anxiety management. In reality, your brain changes in response to repeated experiments that collectively disprove certain negative assumptions about how the world works. We set up situations that let your brain discover a different (better!) story: When I encounter my trigger situations, I can make my own decisions about the best way to respond, then shift my attention to things happening in the present. Anxiety dissipates on its own—no extra work needed from me!—and I’m quite happy with how my decisions pan out. Extra safety behaviors are at best wasted effort, and at worst leave me super anxious. Your brain is never trying to hurt you; it wants you alive and well, and simply has mistakenly concluded your safety behaviors helping. Once your brain can see for itself the safety behaviors are only hurting you, it’s happy to put them down and direct energy elsewhere.
Note: That probably sounds too good to be true considering all you’ve been through. Do consult other ERP therapists and review research on effectiveness to feel more confident before proceeding with treatment. And read on—I have a whole page coming up on ERP.
What do you treat?
OCD
At any given point, about 90% of my clients have OCD, often along with other cool stuff on this page. It’s not easy, but those of us with OCD and these related conditions are also lucky there’s a treatment for us that works extremely well. We’re six decades into using ERP for OCD and a century into exposure therapy for anxiety, and it’s helped a wild number of people get better, myself included. Join the dark side!
OCD’s Relatives
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD)? Illness anxiety? Body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) like compulsive skin picking (excoriation), hair pulling (trichotillomania), or nail-biting? Intense social anxiety? Generalized anxiety? Panic attacks? Phobias? Guess what! ERP is still the treatment of choice, with tweaks here and there to fit each one, and a closely related treatment for BFRBs called HRT/ComB.
Misophonia
Sound sensitivity sucks. Having a name for it and more recognition in the fields of psychology and medicine? Slightly better! But seriously, we finally have techniques for reducing your exposure to irritating sounds and proactively approaching tough situations when you decide to stick them out. No cure yet, and no ERP for this one, just way more effective management.
Meet Reno the therapy bunny!
Therapy bunny is a stretch, but in any case, Reno says hello! He prefers to be a floor bunny, so he will mostly be not-seen and not-heard during our calls. From wherever he is on the floor, he wishes you a successful and rewarding therapy journey.
Schedule a free 20-minute phone consult
If you cry on the call that’s fine
