Did you know that OCD is treatable?
Do you have repeated intrusive thoughts that you could never tell your friends about? Overthink, obsessively self-examine, or overdo everything to prevent disaster? Avoid, seek reassurance, or distract yourself from situations you feel you can’t handle? You can stop doing these compulsions with OCD specialized therapy, Exposure Response Prevention (ERP). With treatment, you can expand your comfort zone and grow your capacity. Your life doesn’t have to be this small.
*If you have severe anxiety or phobia, you’re in the right place. Exposure therapy will help you too.
OCD tells us we just need to keep doing compulsions, and then we’ll feel better.
OCD physical compulsions:
I just need to check that the door is locked one more time, then I will be ok.
OCD mental compulsions:
I just need to finish going over every word I said and every gesture I made to make sure I am a morally good person, then I will be ok.
OCD avoidant compulsions:
I just need to reorganize my life around avoiding my fears, then I will be ok.
I really want to establish a safe relationship with a partner, but at least if I avoid dating I won’t have to overthink.
I really want to have meaningful work, but at least if I avoid working I won’t have to lose a bunch of energy on stressing, overthinking, all or nothing performance, and how devastated I feel when I make a mistake.
Increase your comfort zone and capacity with Exposure Therapy.
Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) is considered the most effective treatment for OCD.
We will trigger the desire to do a compulsion, then not do it.
Start on easy mode and gradually increase the difficulty.
I will teach you skills to help you manage the discomfort of saying no to compulsions, like staying motivated because you value expanding your comfort zone more than the stress of the OCD cycle.
Over time, you will find the discomfort boring, manage OCD thoughts with ease, and easily prevent compulsions.
This works for mental compulsions and “pure O” too, which is the form of OCD that has almost no physical compulsions.
I pull heavily from ACT and Rumination focused ERP as companion strategies for ERP. Your treatment will be tailored to your needs.
How I work to get you to OCD recovery.
Education first. You need to be an expert on your disorder.If you’ve done a brief treatment model of ERP that didn’t help, it may be that the service you were receiving did not prioritize your education on the disorder.
Expect to look at MRI brain scans, we will discuss brain science, watch videos and read articles.
I will answer your questions and check for understanding.
By prioritizing education, I hope to increase your motivation for treatment.
ACT and ERP blend to make it worth it to face your fears.Acceptance and commitment therapy is also an exposure therapy focused on values.
For complex, multi diagnosis cases (especially autism and OCD), ACT is recommended to help clients complete exposure therapy.
ACT helps you accept the challenges in life and commit to your positive goals anyway.
ACT helps you prioritize stuff that you value MORE than the guarantees of safety offered by the disorder.
High standards for recovery, because you really don't have to live like this anymore. Recent studies show the line between active OCD and recovery from OCD is defined by a 25-40% decrease in symptoms.
That’s great, but we can have more!
My clients have whole categories of intrusive thoughts that have “extinguished”
You can feel confident that you could handle any OCD flare up due to stress, because you have the skills to be more consistent than OCD.
Multiple diagnoses and complex cases.
I’m trained in neurodivergent affirming care and specialize in multiply diagnosed individuals.
If you have some combination of ADHD, autism, OCD, phobia, PTSD/C-PTSD, generalized anxiety, or body focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) you may find my approach is a nice match. I help with the dissociation, numbness, frequent hopelessness and depressed mood that often come with these challenging combinations.
Background + Experience
I have my Bachelor’s in Social Work and Master’s in Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to working for myself, I worked in the non-profit sector serving youth and adults in the immigration system, education, child welfare, hospice, and community mental health. I’m autism and PDA informed (pathological demand avoidance/pervasive driver autonomy).
I’m certified a certified clinical service provider for ADHD, the diagnosis that brought me to this work and sparked my interest in complex and multiple diagnosis cases. I am also exposure response prevention (ERP), prolonged exposure (PE), and habit reversal training (HRT) trained. I support OCD, anxiety, phobia, and neurodivergent clients with diagnosis specific care. I also support these clients with loss and grief, PTSD and C-PTSD, life transitions, self-esteem issues, and skills for healthy relationships.
My lived experience includes my ADHD and my neurodiverse family. I strive to be an inclusive therapist and stay in regular training and consultation about providing the best possible care for LGBTQIA+ individuals and people of color.
I am a lifelong learner and often double the required training hours I must complete to maintain my license to practice, so if we work together for a long time you can expect variety in skills and new education to support your goals.
Let’s set up a consultation to see if my services are a good match for what you’re looking for.
Expand your comfort zone and grow your capacity with exposure therapy.
Reach out for a free consultation call.
Take a listen to my appearance on the ADHDifference discussing multiple diagnoses.