Feeling stuck in an endless loop?
Specialized OCD Treatment for Adults
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 daunting—or downright dangerous.
OCD definitely sucks, and you have probably tried to get yourself better several (thousand) times already. If it makes you feel better, I couldn’t figure out how to exit the obsessive-compulsive cycle on my own, nor have I heard of anyone else succeeding on their own either. The good news? Whenever you become willing to put down your old ideas and try actual OCD treatment, there is a solid 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 like torture but is basically just mindfulness.”
Therapy is practical and emotional. You can share all parts of your life to whatever degree works for you. You can cry, laugh, and make meaning. At the same time, we set 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 yourself it’s safe to relax
People often assume ERP = anxiety management, or that ERP requires torturing yourself. In reality, your brain changes in response to what you learn in treatment, so after a few exposures, your automatic response to your triggers shifts to be way more neutral. Getting technical for a second, we set up carefully designed experiments that can prove or disprove specific negative assumptions about how the world works. We run enough of them, with enough variety, that your brain decides for itself not to keep freaking out in response to your previous triggers. Your brain is thrifty and doesn’t want to spend all its energy monitoring possible but highly unlikely threats. It just needs clear evidence that it’s safe to stop. For the record, you can get that evidence through a short series of lightly challenging learning exercises, not self-torture.
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? 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 totally fine
