Do you feel like your mind won’t let you rest?
Maybe you're constantly questioning yourself, replaying conversations, or getting caught in endless "what if?" thoughts. You may spend hours trying to figure out what a thought means, whether you can trust your feelings, or whether you've made the right decision.
Therapy for OCD
Even when you get an answer, your mind seems to come up with one more question.
You may also find yourself looking for reassurance, checking how you feel, reviewing memories, analyzing your intentions, or trying to think your way out of uncomfortable thoughts. From the outside, it may look like you're simply an anxious or thoughtful person. Inside, it can feel exhausting.
If you've ever thought, "Why can't I just stop thinking about this?" or "What if this thought means something about me?", please know that you're not alone. OCD can be incredibly convincing, especially when it targets the things you care about most.
When thinking becomes the thing keeping you stuck.
OCD isn't always about visible behaviors like checking, washing, or repeating things. Sometimes the compulsions happen almost entirely in your mind.
You might replay a conversation to make sure you didn't hurt someone. You might mentally review your memories, search for the "right" feeling, compare possibilities, ask others for reassurance, or repeatedly analyze whether a thought is true. You may even spend so much time trying to figure out what you're thinking or feeling that you become disconnected from the rest of your life.
This can be especially confusing when you are a deep thinker, highly sensitive, or creative person. Your ability to notice details, imagine possibilities, and think deeply can become tangled up with anxiety and OCD. You may start wondering whether you're being thoughtful or whether you're stuck in a mental loop.
None of this means you're broken or that you are choosing to think this way. And having an intrusive thought does not make the thought meaningful, dangerous, or reflective of who you are.
Therapy can give you a different way to relate to these thoughts so they don't have to run your day.
How I work with OCD
My approach to OCD is collaborative, compassionate, and practical. I want you to feel understood, while also helping you make meaningful changes in the patterns that keep OCD going.
One of the approaches I use is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). ERP involves gradually facing thoughts, situations, or uncertainty that OCD has taught you to avoid while learning not to rely on compulsions for relief. This isn't about forcing you into situations before you're ready. We work together to understand your OCD and develop a pace that feels challenging while still supported.
I also use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help you step out of the constant struggle with your thoughts. Instead of spending your energy trying to make every uncomfortable thought go away or feel certain about everything, we can work on making room for uncertainty while choosing actions that reflect what matters to you.
Mindfulness and self-compassion are also important parts of my work. You may have spent years criticizing yourself for the thoughts you have or feeling ashamed that you can't simply "let things go." I want therapy to be a place where you can learn to notice what is happening without immediately judging yourself for it.
Because I work from a somatic perspective, I also pay attention to what's happening in your body. OCD isn't just something that happens in your thoughts. Anxiety can show up as tension, restlessness, a racing heart, a tight chest, or an overwhelming urge to figure something out right now. Learning to notice these experiences can help us understand what you're going through without treating every uncomfortable feeling as a problem that needs to be solved.
What might OCD therapy help you change?
Together, we may work toward:
Spending less time caught in mental loops and "what if" questions
Recognizing when you're caught in a mental compulsion
Responding differently to intrusive thoughts
Becoming more comfortable with uncertainty
Reducing the need for constant reassurance or checking
Making decisions without needing to feel completely certain
Learning that an uncomfortable thought doesn't have to control your behavior
Reconnecting with relationships, creativity, work, and everyday experiences that OCD may have pushed into the background
Building a life based on what matters to you rather than what fear tells you to avoid
The goal isn't to make sure you never have another intrusive thought. Minds have thoughts. The goal is to help you spend less of your life fighting with them.
What if I'm afraid to tell someone what I'm thinking?
You're not the first person to worry that a therapist will judge you because of your thoughts.
OCD can latch onto deeply personal fears and create thoughts that feel completely against your values. You may be afraid that saying them out loud will change what someone thinks of you, or that having the thought means something about who you are. You deserve a therapy space where you can talk honestly without being shamed. We can get curious about what's happening without treating every thought as a statement about your character.
What if I've been trying to figure this out on my own for years?
You may already know a lot about OCD. You may have read books, searched the internet, listened to podcasts, or learned every possible explanation for why your mind does what it does.
Understanding OCD can be helpful, but sometimes more information becomes another way of trying to finally feel certain. In therapy, we'll focus not only on understanding what's happening, but on practicing a different way of responding to it.
What if ERP sounds terrifying?
It's understandable to feel nervous about ERP! But please know you don't have to walk into therapy and immediately confront your biggest fear.
We'll talk about what you're experiencing, what OCD looks like for you, and what you're ready to work on. ERP is something we approach collaboratively and thoughtfully, rather than something you have to do perfectly.
You don't have to figure everything out before reaching out
I have clinical training in ACT, and I incorporate ERP, mindfulness, self-compassion, and somatic approaches into my work with clients experiencing OCD and anxiety. I also bring personal experience with anxiety and OCD to this work, which has deepened my understanding of how exhausting it can be to question your own thoughts and feelings.
Ready to talk about what's been going on?
You don't need to have your OCD figured out before you reach out. If you're wondering whether therapy might be helpful, I offer a free 15-minute consultation where you can ask questions, tell me a little about what you're experiencing, and get a sense of whether we'd be a good fit.