What Is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

Find a therapist to treat OCD

Butterfly tapping is a subtle, easy-to-use self-soothing technique when your nervous system is activated.

Supportive thought mantras can help you redirect automatic, negative thinking patterns.

The container exercise is a practical and useful visualization tool from EMDR therapy.

“Sorry, my hand is shaking,” my client says.

We are in the middle of an exposure exercise for his obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). He experiences terrifying intrusive thoughts about harming his loved ones, and my job is to help him confront those fears without resorting to compulsions. My client is holding a knife to the small of my back.

“I know it's hard, but stay with the exposure for another minute,” I reply.

As I sit with my client and allow the anxiety of the moment to wash over him, I ask my client to rate his distress on a scale of 1 to 10.

I am an OCD therapist, and I practice an objectively strange type of therapy. I help my clients engage in exposures—brave acts that fly in the face of their fears—while resisting their compulsions.

I love being an OCD therapist. Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is vastly preferable to trying to talk my clients out of their fears. Reassurance rarely works for long. The only thing that can convince my client that he won’t hurt me is being in a position where he could.

My clients are kindhearted, earnest humans who suffer from the same disorder that made me feel alone and scared for most of my 20s. The fear of harming someone does not equate to the intent to harm someone. I myself grappled mightily with this confusing thought........

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