People with OCD experience intrusive thoughts, images and/or impulses that cause them to experience intense emotions such as anxiety and shame. Here are a few themes you might experience with OCD:
- Sexual thoughts about children
- Thoughts or images about harming loved ones
- Memories from the past feeling suddenly significant that you fear may make you a bad person
- Sensations that the world isn’t real
- Urges to end your life that cause distress
- Intense relationship doubts
- Fears around having a serious illness that you just haven’t found yet
Because of this, people with OCD develop compulsions as a way to either cope with the feelings or thoughts, to explore feared meanings behind them, or to try to prevent the scary things from happening. These compulsions can be internal or external, here are some examples:
- Memory reviewing
- Repeatedly checking doors, hobs, plugs
- Intensely monitoring physiological reactions and emotions
- Asking loved ones for reassurance
- Researching things online
- Avoiding many situations to try to prevent intrusive thoughts
- Getting additional doctor check-ups
- Creating specific rules and rituals to feel safe around people or to prevent bad things from happening
You do NOT need an official diagnosis to get help with these things. If they feel familiar, then you have come to the right place.
The thing that first led me to specialise in OCD was the realisation of how much it can erode someone’s trust in themselves. I have supported countless people who doubt their own morals, memories, and even eyesight. We have worked together to find their trust in themselves again and to live lives that they find valuable and meaningful-not ruled by their OCD.
When I say that I have heard it all and that your thoughts won’t scare me, I really mean it. I have specialised in OCD for several years now and have helped people who have tried different therapies and coaching programmes, those that feel they won’t ever recover from OCD.
I have been a loud advocate for ethical and informed OCD therapy for several years now. I believe that OCD is an area that needs additional training and experience to work with it, because of how complex it can be. It IS possible to get better, and I will do everything I can to ensure we are helping you in the best way possible.
Not only am I a BABCP accredited Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist, I have dedicated years to researching and training in different ways to help people with OCD. I offer exposure and response prevention (ERP) with this being the ‘gold standard’ for OCD, and also have inference-based CBT (iCBT) training. I use different techniques from modalities such as Compassion-Focused therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and cognitive approaches of CBT to help those with OCD when they fit best. I work with a lot of people with chronic and complex OCD, so adapting and individualising treatment is key.
What this means is that I do not limit my training to one specific way to help people with OCD, I am always making sure I follow the research and recommendations for what can best help my clients. I am a big believer in not only playing whack-a-mole with your current OCD theme, but figuring out what led you to develop these OCD spirals in the first place, so that we can reduce the vulnerability to future spirals with different themes.
I also have spent a lot of time ensuring that all of the ways in which I work therapeutically also fit for neurodivergent clients. There is a huge overlap and co-occurrence between OCD and neurodivergence such as autism and ADHD, and so I ensure that we always work in a way that works for the specific brain and personality of my client. This also means that we do not try to take away helpful stims or try to get your brain to never obsess or ruminate in a way that helps you to properly process information. What we do is to tease apart which things are helpful and which feed the OCD. Therapy is at your pace, working towards your goals.