Obsessive-compulsive disorder doesn’t have to rule your life.
OCD therapy in Southington, CT & online across CT
Has OCD been running the show?
You might look like you have it all together on the outside, while inside feeling exhausted from the constant mental negotiations and behavioral compulsions.
It might feel like…
Your mind latches onto one doubt and won’t let go
You spend hours researching, replaying, analyzing, or seeking reassurance
Anxiety spikes over “what if” scenarios that feel urgent and catastrophic
Your avoid situations, people, or decisions just to feel some relief
Your relationships feel strained because OCD demands so much attention
OCD doesn’t just create anxiety—it can erode your confidence and blur your sense of self. It steals your time, drains your energy, and gradually narrows your world.
Maybe you’re…
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You question your feelings or sexuality, your partner’s intentions, or whether you’re “with the right person.”
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Your mind replays past events, conversations, or imagined harms searching for proof that you didn’t hurt someone.
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Unwanted thoughts feel disturbing, urgent, or meaningful—even when they don’t reflect who you are.
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You feel compelled to get things exactly right to prevent something terrible from happening.
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You wash, avoid, or mentally neutralize to reduce anxiety.
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You repetitively check locks, stoves, and appliances for safety in order to avoid catastrophe.
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You feel extreme guilt regarding your religious or moral transgressions.
While OCD themes differ, the underlying pattern is often the same.
Understanding the OCD cycle…
OCD tends to follow a predictable sequence:
Trigger – A thought, image, sensation, memory, or situation
Obsessional Doubt – “What if…?” possibility or magical thinking
Feared Consequence – Catastrophic outcome your mind insists could happen
Anxiety – Urgency, fear, dread, or mental noise
Compulsion – Checking, replaying, analyzing, researching, avoiding, or reassurance-seeking
The compulsion brings temporary relief. But it teaches your brain that the doubt was important and dangerous—so the cycle repeats. Over time, OCD becomes less about the content of the fear and more about the process of chasing certainty. Evidence-based therapy approaches for OCD can help you to break free from this overwhelming cycle.
How evidence-based therapy for ocd works
I take a thoughtful, specialized approach to OCD treatment.
Grounded in I-CBT
Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) helps us examine how obsessive doubt gets constructed in the first place. Rather than focusing only on reducing anxiety, we look at the reasoning process that pulls you away from reality and into imagined scenarios. From there, we work to rebuild trust in your senses, your judgment, and your ability to live without chasing certainty.
Guided by ACT Values
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) shapes how we do this work. Instead of battling every intrusive thought, we build mental flexibility and help you move toward what matters—even when uncertainty is present.
Consideration of ERP
When appropriate, we may incorporate Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) using collaborative, carefully paced exposures. These are never one-size-fits-all. Exposure is considered if it supports your progress and aligns with your goals.
Trauma & IFS-Informed
When trauma is part of the picture and your OCD is intertwined with past events, we may integrate:
IFS, or parts work, to understand protective patterns and bring your parts into greater harmony and balance
Brainspotting or EMDR Therapy to calm your nervous system or process unresolved experiences
This allows us to treat not just the symptoms—but the deeper roots when necessary.
The “Flashlight in the Attic”
Imagine your mind is like a dark attic. OCD is a box in the corner labeled: “Important. Dangerous. Urgent.” Your brain keeps shining a flashlight on that box—inspecting it, rechecking it, analyzing what might be inside to ensure it’s non-threatening. The more you shine the light on it, the more significant it feels.
Our work together is about learning that you don’t have to keep opening that box. You can set the flashlight down or turn it toward something else entirely. Toward your relationships. Toward meaningful or creative work. Toward the parts of your life that have been waiting to be embraced.
OCD Therapy can help you…
Understand obsessive doubts and let intrusive thoughts pass
Reduce compulsive checking, analyzing, and reassurance-seeking
Tolerate and sit with uncertainty without spiraling
Rebuild trust in your own senses and judgment
Strengthen relationships and feel more present in them
Reclaim time, energy, and mental space
Live according to your values—not your fears
Frequently asked questions about therapy for OCD
FAQs
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OCD is commonly missed or misdiagnosed. And many people who reach out aren’t sure whether what they’re experiencing is “really OCD.” OCD isn’t defined by the specific content of your fears—it’s defined by the pattern and the amount of time lost to obsessions and compulsions.
You might notice:
Repetitive, intrusive doubts that feel urgent or catastrophic
A strong need for certainty
Mental reviewing, checking, or reassurance-seeking that temporarily reduce anxiety
Avoiding situations to prevent feared outcomes
Feeling stuck in a time-consuming loop that logic alone doesn’t resolve
If anxiety comes in waves but you’re able to move on fairly easily, it may not be OCD. But if your mind keeps pulling you back into the same doubt—and you feel compelled to neutralize or solve it—that’s often when we begin exploring OCD more closely.
If your thoughts feel sticky, repetitive, and driven by a need for certainty—and your attempts to resolve them only bring temporary relief—it may be worth exploring whether OCD is part of the picture. You don’t need to figure it out alone though, I’ll be there to guide and support you.
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OCD therapy begins with a free phone consultation to determine whether we may be a good fit. If we decide to move forward, our first session is a thorough assessment where we explore your symptoms, the patterns driving them, your history, and your goals for treatment.
If OCD is suspected, I may ask you to complete a standardized OCD measure between sessions. We review your results together and use that information—along with your lived experience—to create a thoughtful, individualized treatment plan.
From there, we begin structured treatment. For many clients, this means starting with Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT) modules to understand how obsessive doubt takes hold and how to step out of the cycle. If trauma or nervous system dysregulation is a significant factor, we may first integrate EMDR or Brainspotting to help create stability and calm.
As treatment progresses, we reassess your symptoms and adjust accordingly. Some clients choose to incorporate gentle, collaborative exposure work. Others may deepen trauma processing or nervous system work. Throughout the process, we revisit your goals and make decisions together about the next steps. Therapy is structured in a way that is collaborative and responsive to you.
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Treatment length varies depending on symptom severity, goals, and consistency of practice between sessions. Many clients begin noticing shifts as they understand the OCD cycle more clearly and reduce compulsive responding. We’ll always tailor the pace to you.
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Yes. I offer adjunct therapy for individuals who are already working with another therapist but would like specialized, evidence-based OCD treatment. This may include a structured course of Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT) or focused work targeting obsessive doubt and intrusive thoughts followed by exposure therapy.
Adjunct OCD treatment allows us to work toward a clearly defined goal while you continue your ongoing therapy elsewhere. With your written consent, I’m happy to collaborate with your current provider to support cohesive care.
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Intensives are an option for you to focus on your OCD symptoms in an accelerated format with 3-hour sessions over the course of 1-3 days. Intensives allow the opportunity to progress through your symptoms in a more succinct and focused way without the interruption of a traditional 45-minute session.
An Intensive format may decrease overall treatment time and be more cost effective because of time not spent on:
Checking in at the beginning of each session
Addressing current crises and concerns
Focusing on stabilizing and coping skills that you need before healing
Assisting in regaining composure at the end of each session.
Intensives also provide more time and space to integrate techniques from various treatment methods to get you feeling better faster. For instance, an Intensive session may begin with reviewing concepts from I-CBT modules, followed by practicing an exposure, and ending with calming your nervous system through Brainspotting.
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Beginning treatment for OCD can feel both hopeful and intimidating, and it’s important that you feel comfortable with the therapist you choose. If you're considering working together, here’s what the process typically looks like:
The first step is scheduling a brief consultation call here. This allows us to talk about the symptoms you're experiencing and determine whether my approach to OCD treatment feels like a good fit for your needs and comfort level. If we decide to move forward, we’ll schedule your intake session during that call. At that time, I will also collect a form of payment to hold your appointment.
Within about 24 hours after scheduling, you’ll receive your intake paperwork through your email. These forms help me understand your background, current concerns, and goals for treatment. I ask that the paperwork be completed at least 48 hours before your intake session so I have time to review everything thoughtfully before we meet.
During the intake session, we’ll explore the patterns of obsessions and compulsions you’ve been experiencing and begin identifying treatment goals. From there, we’ll develop a treatment plan and begin the therapy process, often using structured approaches such as I-CBT and ERP to help you gradually regain confidence and freedom from OCD patterns.