Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
There’s a reason OCD feels so real—and a way out when you’re ready
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a serious and often misunderstood condition. While each person’s OCD may look different in terms of the types of obsessions and compulsions they experience, the underlying cycle is the same. Obsessions are unwanted and persistent thoughts that produce intense feelings of distress, anxiety, guilt or disgust. As a result, mental or physical acts (compulsions) are preformed in attempt to decrease those feelings or prevent a feared outcome.
A common misconception is that compulsions are always something you can see, like handwashing or checking. But it is just as common for them to be mental — like replaying conversations, ruminating, analyzing, or problem solving. Compulsions do provide temporary relief, but at the expense of reinforcing the obsession — ensuring it will come back louder. The anxiety also increases requiring even more compulsions. Over time, the cycle becomes exhausting and disorienting.
To effectively treat OCD, it requires specialized treatment like Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Inference-based Cognitive Behavior Therapy (I-CBT) . Traditional talk therapy or anxiety management techniques unintentionally make symptoms worse by offering reassurance or problem-solving strategies that feed the compulsions instead of interrupting them.
With the right treatment, your symptoms don’t just improve — you get your life back. You’re stop doubting yourself and regain trust in who you are. Start making choices based on your values — instead of your fears.
What are Obsessions?
Obsessions are distressing, unwanted, repetitive thoughts, images, or urges—that feel urgent and threatening.
Ego-dystonic— meaning they clash with your values or identity.
Often appear as “what if” or “maybe” thoughts.
Trying to control them makes them come back louder
You fear that if you don’t neutralize or respond to them, something terrible could happen.
You question what it means that you even had the thought — or assume it must say something about you.
What are Compulsions?
Compulsions are the actions — either mental or physical—that you feel driven to do in response to an obsession. They’re meant to reduce the distress caused by the obsession, or prevent something bad from happening.
They do bring relief — but it’s only temporary.
Each time you give in to a compulsion, it teaches your brain that the obsession was dangerous.
This causes obsessions to return even stronger and more often —it’s how OCD sustains itself.
People with OCD dread their compulsions — yet feel completely dependent on them.
Compulsions are controllable — but that doesn’t you can “just stop.” If it were that easy, you already would have.
Common Physical Compulsions:
Checking
Handwashing/cleaning
Rearanching
Avoidance
Repeating
Prayer
Seeking Reassurance
Counting
Confessing
Making Lists
Common Mental Compulsions:
Ruminating
Questioning
Self-reassurance
Threat monitoring (internal and external)
Prayer
Distraction
Mental Counting
Changing or replacing thoughts
Thought suppression
Emotion/arousal checking
Common OCD Subtypes:
Moral Scrupulosity
Treatment Options for OCD
OCD is not an anxiety disorder — it affects a different part of the brain and follows a unique cycle of obsessions and compulsions. That means it requires treatments developed specifically for that cycle. Unfortunately, OCD is often treated like generalized anxiety — even by well-meaning therapists. But strategies that help anxiety don’t help OCD. They actually strengthen the cycle and make symptoms worse.
The good news is that OCD is highly treatable when approached with the right methods. Research shows that ERP and I-CBT have success rates as high as 70%. Yet it’s not uncommon for people to spend months or even years in treatments that aren’t evidence-based for OCD — like EMDR or traditional talk therapy — before finding proper, specialized treatment. At best, those treatments keep you stuck and delay progress. At worst, they cause real harm by reinforcing the very patterns you are trying to break.
Not sure where to start? I can help you decide
I’m trained in both Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Inference-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) and offer multiple levels of care depending on what you need. From standard weekly appointments to extended sessions and Intensive Treatment Options for more severe or complex cases.
You’re don’t need to have it all figured out — that’s exactly what the free phone consult is for. I’ll walk you through the options and help you make sense of what is available. My goal is to make the process feel less overwhelming and help you get clarity on next steps.