OCD Treatment and Therapy

I am currently working toward certification in OCD treatment and receive ongoing supervision as I develop this area of practice. My training includes Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (I-CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and the integration of parts work into OCD treatment. At this stage of my training, I work with clients experiencing mild to moderate OCD symptoms.

ERP is an important part of OCD treatment, but I believe the way exposure is approached matters. My training emphasizes the inhibitory learning model of ERP, which focuses less on trying to make anxiety disappear and more on creating new learning: discovering that difficult thoughts and feelings can be experienced without performing compulsions, and that feared outcomes are not as certain or inevitable as OCD suggests.

I also place a strong emphasis on making this work collaborative and respectful. ERP can involve doing difficult things, and therapy should be willing to challenge you when that challenge is part of moving toward what matters to you. At the same time, that does not mean forcing you through exercises or treating distress as something that needs to be eliminated. The goal is to understand how OCD is keeping you stuck and work together toward responding differently, in a way that respects your values, your pace, and your autonomy.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is another important part of this work. ACT focuses on developing greater psychological flexibility—learning to make room for difficult thoughts and feelings without allowing them to dictate your choices, while moving toward the people, activities, and ways of living that matter to you. In OCD treatment, this can be particularly helpful because the goal is not simply to feel less anxious or eliminate unwanted thoughts. It is to build a life that is less organized around avoiding anxiety, uncertainty, or discomfort.

Parts work can also be incorporated into OCD treatment, helping to understand the protective responses that develop around fear, uncertainty, shame, or other difficult experiences. This can create a different relationship with the parts of you that are trying to keep you safe, while still addressing the compulsive patterns that maintain OCD. I also have training in integrating IFS-informed parts work into OCD treatment.

For some people, ERP is not the best starting point or the best fit for the way their OCD operates. I-CBT offers another approach that focuses on how obsessional doubt is created and maintained, helping people recognize the reasoning process that pulls them away from what they actually know and experience. When appropriate, I-CBT can provide a different pathway into OCD treatment rather than assuming that everyone needs the same approach.

Ultimately, OCD treatment is not about finding one “right” technique. It is about understanding how OCD is operating for you and finding an approach that is both effective and workable. Therapy can be collaborative without being passive: your perspective, values, and readiness matter, while the work can still challenge you to move toward the things OCD has taught you to avoid.

Obsessive Compulsive Order