OCD + Anxiety
I specialize in treating OCD using Rumination-Focused Exposure and Response Prevention (RF-ERP). This approach understands that the core compulsion in many forms of OCD — especially the more “Pure O” types — is rumination: the often unwanted and "out of control feeling," mental behavior of obsessively trying to figure things out, get certainty, or solve a feeling.
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Instead of focusing only on the content of your thoughts, we look at what your mind is doing in response to them. That could be mentally reviewing, analyzing, checking, or trying to “feel right.” These are all compulsions — even if they happen "quietly" in your head.
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In our work together, we’ll slow this down and begin to notice these patterns as they’re happening. I’ll help you learn how to recognize when you’re ruminating, and how to step out of it, by practicing a different way of responding when the urge to figure it out shows up. From there, we can start to respond differently — not by fighting the thoughts, but by stepping out of the loop that keeps them going.
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Alongside this, we’ll also make space to look at the emotional layers underneath your OCD or anxiety— the fears, conflicts, or long-held patterns that might be fueling the cycle and keeping it in place.
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The psychoanalytic perspectives that we bring to OCD treatment not only make the work more relational and human, but also more effective. To read more about the RF-ERP approach to OCD, please see my supervisor, Dr. Michael J. Greenberg's OCD Associates practice website.
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