Therapy for OCD

The thought arrives uninvited. The ritual promises relief, then asks for more.

OCD can turn a passing thought into hours of checking, reviewing or seeking reassurance. With a practical, CBT-based approach, we can map how the cycle works and begin shifting your time and attention back toward the things you care about.

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What OCD can look like

OCD is often reduced to a joke about liking things neat. The real condition is harder to live with and often hidden. It centers on obsessions, which are intrusive thoughts, images or urges that feel unwanted and alarming, and compulsions, which are the things you do to bring that alarm down.

Some compulsions are easy to see, like checking, repeating an action or redoing something until it feels right. Many are invisible. Mental rituals can include reviewing a conversation in detail, counting, replacing a bad thought with a good one or arguing with a thought until it loosens its grip.

Reassurance seeking is a common form that is easy to miss. Asking someone close to you the same question again, searching online for an answer you already found or confessing a thought so it no longer feels like a secret can bring relief for a moment. Then the doubt returns, often with a new detail attached.

The cost builds quietly. Rituals can take hours a day, make you late, wear on relationships and leave you exhausted from wrestling with your own mind. You may hold a demanding job and keep the extent of it to yourself, which can make the effort lonelier still.

Intrusive thoughts
Checking or redoing
Mental rituals
Reassurance seeking

Why the cycle feels so convincing

Think of OCD as a loop. A thought shows up and feels urgent or dangerous. Doubt and anxiety rise quickly. A compulsion brings relief, and that relief quietly teaches your mind that the ritual was necessary.

Each round makes the next one more likely. The ritual may need to be done more carefully, more often or in exactly the right order, and the situations that set it off can multiply.

Avoidance belongs to the pattern too. Steering clear of certain places, objects, tasks or thoughts can feel sensible, yet it narrows your life and keeps the fear from ever being tested.

None of this says anything bad about your character. Intrusive thoughts are often upsetting precisely because they run against what you value. Seeing the loop clearly is useful because it changes the question from what a thought means to what you do next.

The aim is not to win the argument with a thought. It is to stop that argument from running your day.

A practical, CBT-based approach

CBT has a strong research base for OCD, and my work draws on it. We begin by mapping your cycle in plain terms: what sets it off, what the thought tells you, which rituals follow and what each one costs.

From there, the work moves toward doing what matters to you without the ritual. We plan steps together, starting where change feels manageable, such as delaying a check, shortening a routine or letting a doubt go unanswered while you get on with your evening. You help decide the pace.

Mixed feelings about change are understandable. Part of you may want relief from the rituals while another part fears what could happen without them. Motivational Interviewing lets us explore that tension honestly instead of pushing past it.

DBT skills add ways to tolerate distress and ride out a strong urge without acting on it. Throughout, the work is collaborative: I bring structure and clinical perspective, you bring knowledge of your own mind, and we adjust as we learn what helps.

When other support would help

Other concerns can travel with OCD, such as anxiety, low mood or drinking to quiet the noise. We can look at how they connect and decide together what to address first.

If a more specialized OCD program or a medication evaluation would help, I will tell you so and help you find it. That support can run alongside our work or take its place, depending on what serves you.

I am not a prescriber, so questions about medication belong with one. With your permission, I can coordinate with your prescriber so the care you receive fits together.

Starting with a conversation

Sessions are held by secure video for adults who are physically in Connecticut, New York or Massachusetts at the time we meet, and I work with individuals only. My in-network plans include Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, UnitedHealthcare and Cigna, along with most other major insurers, and I take part in the MultiPlan network as a participating provider.

Putting intrusive thoughts into words can feel daunting, and you are welcome to start with only part of the story. A free consultation, requested from the Work With Me page, gives you room to ask questions and see whether my way of working feels right.

Common Questions

Questions People Ask

Does an intrusive thought mean I secretly want it to happen?

No. In OCD, intrusive thoughts are unwanted and distressing, and their content says more about what you fear than about what you intend. Therapy works on how you respond to them rather than trying to settle what they mean.

Will I have to stop every ritual at once?

No. We choose steps together and begin where change feels manageable. The pace is something we agree on and revisit as the work continues.

Can OCD be treated over video?

Yes. The structured, practical work described here fits secure video well, and joining from your own space can make it easier to connect sessions to the places where rituals actually show up.