OCD
is treatable.
Cali Keating, OCD specialist.
You can have boundaries, safety, and a beautiful future… without OCD.
Exposure Response Prevention for OCD
Do you have repeated intrusive thoughts that you could never tell your friends about? Overthink, obsessively self-examine, or overdo everything to prevent disaster? Avoid, seek reassurance, or distract yourself from situations you feel you can’t handle? You can stop doing these compulsions with OCD specialized therapy, Exposure Response Prevention (ERP).
OCD tells us we just need to keep doing compulsions, and then we’ll feel better.
Compulsions
I just need to check that the door is locked one more time, then I will be ok.
Mental Compulsions
I just need to finish going over every word I said and every gesture I made to make sure I didn’t embarrass myself, then I will be ok.
Avoidance compulsions
I keep my life very small to avoid discomfort, and even though a part of me would like to have more varied experiences, it doesn’t feel worth it to get out of my bubble.
Many of my clients have not had the opportunity to learn how to be ok without compulsions. You may have tried to stop doing compulsions on your own, but often this is not sustainable and does not get rid of other compulsions. I can help you become an expert in how your OCD works so you can have autonomy over your thoughts and actions.
Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) is considered the most effective treatment for OCD
This protocol involves structured exercises in session.
We will trigger the desire to do a compulsion, then not do it.
Start on easy mode and gradually increase the difficulty.
I will teach you skills to help you manage the discomfort of saying no to compulsions.
Over time, you will find the discomfort boring, feel unbothered by OCD, and feel confident that you don’t need OCD behaviors.
This works for mental compulsions and “pure O” too, which is the form of OCD that has almost no physical compulsions.
I also pull from ACT and Rumination focused ERP as companion strategies for ERP. Your treatment will be tailored to your needs.
From the IOCD website:
You will find that these feelings and thoughts are distressing, but also that they can’t hurt you — they are safe and manageable.
When you stop fighting the obsessions and anxiety, these feelings will eventually begin to subside.
This natural drop in anxiety that happens when you stay “exposed” and “prevent” the compulsive “response” is called habituation.
You will find that your fears are less likely to come true than you thought.
You will get better at managing “everyday” levels of risk and uncertainty.
My approach
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Data-driven
Exposure response prevention (ERP) therapy is considered the gold standard for OCD treatment. If you’ve tried talk therapy for OCD, you may have noticed that you still have OCD! Behavioral therapy is considered the most effective pathway to OCD recovery. You can have a massive decrease in intrusive thoughts, watch intrusive thoughts float away with ease, and stop doing your compulsions. That’s OCD recovery!
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Skills based
ERP comes with a number of skills you can use to manage OCD in your real life. You will be able to accept uncertainty, have self-talk ready to go to disconnect from intrusive thoughts, and feel in charge of your impulse to do compulsions. Skills come from ERP but I also pull from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and Rumination Focused ERP (RF-ERP).
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Ready for real life
The experience of OCD over the life span can be frustrating. You may notice that your past symptoms no longer bother you, but you have new fears and new compulsions that keep coming. When you have the owner’s manual for your OCD, you will begin to see every intrusive thought and every impulse to do compulsions as the same. You’ll feel confident that OCD thoughts and urges are simply irrelevant, even if the content is weird or disturbing.
I was referred to you but I don’t think I have OCD. Can you help me?
Yes! Here are other mental health problems that Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can help you resolve:
Generalized anxiety disorder.
Control issues.
Avoidance issues.
Social anxiety.
Relationship anxiety, relationship avoidance, or relationship OCD.
Work anxiety or work avoidance.
Health anxiety and medical anxiety.
Fear of going to the doctor or iatrophobia.
Fear of vomiting or emetophobia.
Fear of flying, flight anxiety, or aerophobia.
Fear of driving, driving avoidance, or vehophobia.
Fear of needles, avoidance of injections and blood draws, or trypanophobia.
Body focused repetitive behaviors, like skin picking, hair pulling, and chewing/biting.
Exposure therapy is a data based, effective approach for all anxiety disorders and phobias.
About Cali
I worked in the US as a mental health therapist for 8 years prior to moving abroad. In addition to my ERP training, I’m also a certified clinical service provider for ADHD, and autism informed and educated. My specialization is in OCD and body focused repetitive behaviors for complex, multi-diagnosis cases. I work with OCD combined with depression, generalized anxiety disorder, PTSD, ADHD, autism, and eating disorders. I’m well-versed in all subtypes of OCD including relationship OCD, sexuality OCD, POCD, existential OCD, morality OCD, just right OCD, health OCD, contamination OCD, pure O OCD, and real event OCD. I support clients with severe social anxiety and health anxiety too, since these function very similarly to OCD. If you have a trauma you haven’t talked about and your OCD is using it to ruin your life, you have come to the right person. Nothing is too weird for OCD and nothing is too weird for me as your OCD therapist. We can discuss it all in a non-judgmental and confidential space.
OCD therapy online, in English, in Europe.
Let’s chat!
I offer a 20 minute zoom consultation free of charge. I’ll summarize how I work and you’ll summarize your experience, and we can decide if my style is a good fit for your needs. Fill out the form below and we can schedule a call.
Frequently Asked Questions
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I am an English speaking OCD specialist for clients in the European Union (EU) and the US. I provide OCD therapy in English anywhere in the EU.
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I’m fortunate enough to have interest in my services in the EU without seeking numerous registrations and licensure equivalence from my license in the US. In the US, I have to meet board regulation standards and I use the same privacy and ethical procedures for European clients.
I practice here as a mental health coach or “therapist,” which is an unregulated term in the EU. Therefore, I have the flexibility to see you for OCD therapy in English online anywhere in the EU.
You may be able to seek reimbursement for my services if you have a reimbursement based private insurance plan in the EU, because some of these are flexible with the registration requirements of the provider. -
A large agency in the US recently completed a study that states it’s possible to reach clinically significant recovery from OCD in 8-16 sessions.
I encourage you to reach for more than clinical significance, which was defined as a decrease in symptoms by 25%.
In 8-16 sessions I have seen clients reach 70% reduction in intrusive thoughts and nearly 0 compulsions, and in 6 months-1 year I have seen clients get to 95% reduction in intrusive thoughts.
To get this level of reduction, monthly meetings are unfortunately not enough support. The context of the study includes twice weekly sessions for the first 6-8 weeks. I understand that two sessions a week is a big ask, so I just request a commitment to 6 once weekly sessions before you consider decreasing frequency.
When you meet your goals for therapy, you can confidently “graduate” treatment and get off of my schedule if you like. You also have the option to continue and address other concerns outside of OCD.