Integrative OCD Treatment
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is said to impact 2% of the population and characterized by intrusive thoughts or images (obsessions) which create feelings and/or sensations of anxiety. The person is then compelled to engage in avoidance and/or repetitive behavioral and/or mental rituals (compulsions) in effort to decrease the anxiety experienced by the obsessions. Although the OCD sufferer experiences fear and anxiety, the actual threat surrounding their fears is often not real and/or unlikely to occur. Compulsive behaviors are essentially maladaptive coping strategies that are continually reinforced through their engagement and keep the person locked in a vicious cycle of suffering. OCD can be understood as a manifestation of a struggle both with the mind (how someone experiences thoughts) and with the emotional state of anxiety (how someone experiences anxious feelings) and our hope is to help provide children and adults with OCD develop a healthier relationship with both their thoughts and anxious feelings.
Evidence based practices suggest that a combination of CBT and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) help OCD sufferers significantly decrease symptoms. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is essentially a practice of allowing yourself to gradually face your anxiety triggers and experience your anxiety and obsessions in a focused and present way without engaging in compulsions. At Transcend Anxiety, we work together with our clients to identify and understand symptoms and develop a treatment plan. We guide our clients through exposures while teaching them the skills to practice on their own. Over the years, I have learned to incorporate other treatment modalities proven effective in the therapeutic process and have learned to treat OCD using an integrative set of tools. All of our clinicians are trained to implement Mindfulness practices, Self-Compassion, Somatic Experiencing techniques and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) techniques when treating OCD. We strongly believe it provides a more well rounded approach to the long term treatment of OCD.
