Understanding Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a common and highly treatable condition that affects children, adolescents, and adults. OCD involves unwanted thoughts, images, feelings, sensations, or urges that create significant doubt, anxiety, distress, or discomfort. In response, individuals often engage in behaviors or mental rituals in an attempt to feel certain, safe, or reassured.
OCD is often misunderstood. Many people think OCD is simply about cleanliness or organization, but OCD can attach itself to virtually anything that a person values. At its core, OCD is a disorder of doubt, uncertainty, and over-responsibility.
Common OCD themes include:
• Contamination fears and excessive washing or cleaning
• Harm OCD involving fears of accidentally hurting oneself or others
• Religious or scrupulosity OCD involving fears of sinning, offending God, or not being moral enough
• Relationship OCD involving persistent doubts about relationships, attraction, or compatibility
• Health anxiety and fears of serious illness despite medical reassurance
• Sexuality related OCD involving intrusive thoughts or doubts about sexual orientation or identity
• Perfectionism and "just right" experiences involving a need for certainty, completeness, or exactness
While the themes may differ, the cycle is often the same: an intrusive thought creates distress, and the person attempts to gain certainty or relief through compulsions. Unfortunately, these efforts strengthen OCD over time.
Everyone Has Strange Thoughts
One of the most surprising things people learn about OCD is that unwanted thoughts are normal. Most people occasionally experience strange, disturbing, embarrassing, or nonsensical thoughts.
The difference is not the thought itself. The difference is what happens next.
OCD convinces people that certain thoughts are dangerous, meaningful, or require immediate attention. It demands certainty where certainty is impossible. The more a person analyzes the thought, seeks reassurance, performs rituals, or tries to make the anxiety disappear, the stronger OCD becomes.
Many people with OCD feel ashamed or frightened by their thoughts and worry that the thoughts say something important about who they are. In reality, OCD often targets the things people care about most. Effective treatment helps individuals develop a different relationship with these thoughts rather than trying to prove them wrong.
What Does OCD Therapy Look Like?
Many children, teens, and adults come to therapy worried that treatment will force them to do things they are not ready to do. In reality, OCD treatment is highly collaborative.
Together, we learn how OCD operates and identify the ways it has started to take over daily life. We then develop a plan to help you gradually face fears, tolerate uncertainty, and reduce the rituals, avoidance, reassurance seeking, and mental habits that keep OCD in charge.
With younger children, I often describe OCD as a "bossy bully" that constantly demands attention and certainty. Treatment helps children learn how to stand up to OCD instead of obeying it. We call this "brave practice" because courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is learning to do important things even when anxiety is present.
Parents are an important part of treatment. They often learn new ways to respond to anxiety and OCD so they can support their child without accidentally helping OCD grow stronger.
Why Reassurance Often Makes OCD Worse
One of the most frustrating aspects of OCD is that reassurance rarely provides lasting relief.
Family members, friends, doctors, clergy, and even therapists may unintentionally become part of the OCD cycle by repeatedly answering questions, providing certainty, or helping someone feel safe. While reassurance may help in the moment, OCD quickly returns with another question, another doubt, or another "what if."
Treatment focuses on helping individuals learn that uncertainty is a normal part of life and that they are capable of handling discomfort without relying on compulsions or reassurance seeking.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is considered the gold standard psychological treatment for OCD.
ERP helps individuals gradually face situations, thoughts, feelings, images, or sensations that trigger OCD while resisting the compulsions that typically follow. Over time, the brain learns that anxiety and uncertainty are tolerable and that feared outcomes are often less dangerous than OCD predicts.
Contrary to popular belief, ERP is not about forcing people into overwhelming situations. Effective ERP is collaborative, individualized, and designed to help clients build confidence through manageable steps. Together, we create opportunities for "brave practice" that allow OCD to lose its influence over time.
Inference Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT)
Inference Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) is an evidence based treatment that focuses on the doubt process that drives OCD.
OCD often begins with a possibility rather than a reality. A person moves from what they actually know to be true into a "what if" scenario that feels important, urgent, or dangerous. I-CBT helps individuals recognize when OCD has pulled them into imagined possibilities and teaches them to reconnect with direct experience, common sense, and reality based information.
For some individuals, I-CBT serves as a valuable complement to ERP.
Specialized Training in OCD Treatment
Marie Foster has completed advanced training in OCD treatment through the International OCD Foundation's Behavior Therapy Training Institute (BTTI), widely recognized as the premier training program for OCD treatment providers. She has also completed a 32 week intensive training program through the Cognitive Behavioral Institute in Pittsburgh and earned certification in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP).
Marie works with children ages 10 and older, adolescents, adults, and families affected by OCD and related conditions. Treatment may incorporate ERP, I-CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), parent coaching, and family support strategies depending on the needs of the individual client.
Getting Your Life Back
Many individuals with OCD suffer in silence for years before receiving an accurate diagnosis. OCD can feel confusing, frightening, and isolating, but it is highly treatable.
With appropriate treatment, people can learn to respond differently to intrusive thoughts, reduce compulsions, tolerate uncertainty, and return to the activities, relationships, and values that matter most.
If you are wondering whether OCD may be affecting you or your child, contact the office by email, text, or by completing the Get in Touch form below. Together, we can determine whether OCD treatment may be the right next step.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a common and highly treatable condition that affects children, adolescents, and adults. OCD involves unwanted thoughts, images, feelings, sensations, or urges that create significant doubt, anxiety, distress, or discomfort. In response, individuals often engage in behaviors or mental rituals in an attempt to feel certain, safe, or reassured.
OCD is often misunderstood. Many people think OCD is simply about cleanliness or organization, but OCD can attach itself to virtually anything that a person values. At its core, OCD is a disorder of doubt, uncertainty, and over-responsibility.
Common OCD themes include:
• Contamination fears and excessive washing or cleaning
• Harm OCD involving fears of accidentally hurting oneself or others
• Religious or scrupulosity OCD involving fears of sinning, offending God, or not being moral enough
• Relationship OCD involving persistent doubts about relationships, attraction, or compatibility
• Health anxiety and fears of serious illness despite medical reassurance
• Sexuality related OCD involving intrusive thoughts or doubts about sexual orientation or identity
• Perfectionism and "just right" experiences involving a need for certainty, completeness, or exactness
While the themes may differ, the cycle is often the same: an intrusive thought creates distress, and the person attempts to gain certainty or relief through compulsions. Unfortunately, these efforts strengthen OCD over time.
Everyone Has Strange Thoughts
One of the most surprising things people learn about OCD is that unwanted thoughts are normal. Most people occasionally experience strange, disturbing, embarrassing, or nonsensical thoughts.
The difference is not the thought itself. The difference is what happens next.
OCD convinces people that certain thoughts are dangerous, meaningful, or require immediate attention. It demands certainty where certainty is impossible. The more a person analyzes the thought, seeks reassurance, performs rituals, or tries to make the anxiety disappear, the stronger OCD becomes.
Many people with OCD feel ashamed or frightened by their thoughts and worry that the thoughts say something important about who they are. In reality, OCD often targets the things people care about most. Effective treatment helps individuals develop a different relationship with these thoughts rather than trying to prove them wrong.
What Does OCD Therapy Look Like?
Many children, teens, and adults come to therapy worried that treatment will force them to do things they are not ready to do. In reality, OCD treatment is highly collaborative.
Together, we learn how OCD operates and identify the ways it has started to take over daily life. We then develop a plan to help you gradually face fears, tolerate uncertainty, and reduce the rituals, avoidance, reassurance seeking, and mental habits that keep OCD in charge.
With younger children, I often describe OCD as a "bossy bully" that constantly demands attention and certainty. Treatment helps children learn how to stand up to OCD instead of obeying it. We call this "brave practice" because courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is learning to do important things even when anxiety is present.
Parents are an important part of treatment. They often learn new ways to respond to anxiety and OCD so they can support their child without accidentally helping OCD grow stronger.
Why Reassurance Often Makes OCD Worse
One of the most frustrating aspects of OCD is that reassurance rarely provides lasting relief.
Family members, friends, doctors, clergy, and even therapists may unintentionally become part of the OCD cycle by repeatedly answering questions, providing certainty, or helping someone feel safe. While reassurance may help in the moment, OCD quickly returns with another question, another doubt, or another "what if."
Treatment focuses on helping individuals learn that uncertainty is a normal part of life and that they are capable of handling discomfort without relying on compulsions or reassurance seeking.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is considered the gold standard psychological treatment for OCD.
ERP helps individuals gradually face situations, thoughts, feelings, images, or sensations that trigger OCD while resisting the compulsions that typically follow. Over time, the brain learns that anxiety and uncertainty are tolerable and that feared outcomes are often less dangerous than OCD predicts.
Contrary to popular belief, ERP is not about forcing people into overwhelming situations. Effective ERP is collaborative, individualized, and designed to help clients build confidence through manageable steps. Together, we create opportunities for "brave practice" that allow OCD to lose its influence over time.
Inference Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT)
Inference Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) is an evidence based treatment that focuses on the doubt process that drives OCD.
OCD often begins with a possibility rather than a reality. A person moves from what they actually know to be true into a "what if" scenario that feels important, urgent, or dangerous. I-CBT helps individuals recognize when OCD has pulled them into imagined possibilities and teaches them to reconnect with direct experience, common sense, and reality based information.
For some individuals, I-CBT serves as a valuable complement to ERP.
Specialized Training in OCD Treatment
Marie Foster has completed advanced training in OCD treatment through the International OCD Foundation's Behavior Therapy Training Institute (BTTI), widely recognized as the premier training program for OCD treatment providers. She has also completed a 32 week intensive training program through the Cognitive Behavioral Institute in Pittsburgh and earned certification in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP).
Marie works with children ages 10 and older, adolescents, adults, and families affected by OCD and related conditions. Treatment may incorporate ERP, I-CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), parent coaching, and family support strategies depending on the needs of the individual client.
Getting Your Life Back
Many individuals with OCD suffer in silence for years before receiving an accurate diagnosis. OCD can feel confusing, frightening, and isolating, but it is highly treatable.
With appropriate treatment, people can learn to respond differently to intrusive thoughts, reduce compulsions, tolerate uncertainty, and return to the activities, relationships, and values that matter most.
If you are wondering whether OCD may be affecting you or your child, contact the office by email, text, or by completing the Get in Touch form below. Together, we can determine whether OCD treatment may be the right next step.