Anxiety & OCD
What is Anxiety & OCD?
Anxiety is the feeling of worry, apprehension, or dread that something bad will happen or that you can’t cope with a situation. It’s also the physical reactions that go with the feeling, like butterflies in the stomach, tension, shakiness, nausea, and sweatiness. And it’s behavior like avoiding what’s causing the anxiety or wanting a lot of reassurance.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a type of anxiety. It involves having obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are unwanted intrusive thoughts, images, or impulses/urges that cause extreme anxiety or distress. Compulsions are behaviors (physical or mental) that you do to get rid of the obsessions or to decrease the anxiety or distress and might involve checking, cleaning, repeating, mentally reviewing, or avoiding.
Anxiety and OCD can happen in response to a specific situation but continue after the situation has passed. They can happen without a specific situation or event too. Both anxiety and OCD can begin at any age and impact people of all ages, races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and backgrounds.
Anxiety and OCD is Treatable
I work with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), separation anxiety, social anxiety, and anxiety related to school, public speaking, performance, athletics, or other environmental factors. I also treat panic and panic attacks, phobias, physical pain, and somatic complaints, as well as body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRB) like hair pulling, skin picking, nail biting, hoarding, and body dysmorphia. In addition, I treat issues related to general overwhelm, high stress, low motivation, disorganization, trouble concentrating, poor sleep, self-image, and executive functioning.
I’m an interactive, active, and non-traditional therapist, and anxiety treatment demands these things. I will use mindfulness, meditation, self-compassion, creative arts, movement, humor, and exposures to help you navigate all of life’s challenges.
How Therapy Can Help
Treating anxiety can depend on what triggers your anxiety, the frequency and intensity of your symptoms, and how much it interferes with your life. I’ll provide you with some education on how the mind works so we can differentiate between “normal and expected” anxiety and the kind that gets in the way of you doing important things. We’ll explore where it’s coming from and how you’ve dealt with it in the past. Then I provide some specific strategies to help you reduce anxiety, or change how you respond to it, so it doesn’t have so much power over you.
The ‘gold standard’ treatment for OCD is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). With ERP, the goal is not to eliminate OCD but to change your relationship with it. We know that trying to make worrisome thoughts go away makes them worse, so instead, we’ll change how you react to them. I’ll walk you through a process where you’ll gradually do things that OCD tells you not to do. Over time, you’ll start to feel empowered, strong, and hopeful. ERP will give you the best chance at living the life you want to live.
Get Started
Ready to start working together? Just click the button below to learn more about my practice and how to become a client.