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Therapy for OCD

Experienced CBT Therapist & ERP Therapist

Therapy in Cheshire & Online Therapy

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CBT Therapy for OCD

OCD constantly evolves. Just as you find a way to shut it down, it finds a new way to pull you back in – a new variation of an intrusive thought, a new behaviour it convinces you to do, a new topic completely it switches to. It’s a sneaky so and so, which is why working with an experienced therapist is so important. 

Therapy for OCD will help you to:

  • Understand intrusive thoughts
  • Stop believing your intrusive thoughts
  • Stop judging yourself for your thoughts
  • Delete your compulsions
  • Deal with new future intrusive thoughts differently
  • Stop adding in new compulsions
  • Finally break free
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Working with me

OCD can be relentless and exhausting. I’m here to ensure you get effective therapy. I’m here to push you to make changes so you’re no longer stuck in the OCD trap. I have nearly 15 years experience working with OCD, for some clients I am their 1st therapist, for others I’m several down the line. 

I take a Straight-Talking approach to therapy, and very much emphasise the importance of knowledge and understanding so OCD doesn’t win again. The aim here is OCD recovery, not just a bit of improvement. I believe all OCD clients can recover.

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What is OCD?

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a type of anxiety that can be incredibly debilitating. Most of those with OCD will have experienced it in some shape or form since early teens. 

OCD starts with intrusive thoughts, images, feelings or sensations. Everyone experiences these on a huge range of topics – it’s a normal part of being a human. But those with OCD typically get stuck on some of these thoughts or images – is it true, what does it mean, what if… This fear then leads to compulsions – avoiding ‘feared’ situations, engaging in superstitious rituals, checking behaviours, checking your past memories, trying to push the thoughts away and more.

Understanding OCD

Every OCD client will have intrusive thoughts they ignore, ones that don’t get pulled into an OCD cycle. Because it’s not all thoughts that distress you, it’s certain ones. And typically, it’s the ones on the topics you most care about, the ones you have the strongest values about, the things that you’d most fear being true. 

Sometimes the topics are triggered from something you’ve watched on TV, something you’ve read in the news, something that someone else has mentioned, or something in your life that is new or has changed. And other times it just randomly pops up with a new topic. 

We can’t stop our brain giving us intrusive suggestions. OCD is the response. Therefore OCD Therapy is about changing the response. So that we are no longer distressed or fearful, and we put these thoughts back in their place. 

 

Time to break free

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Types of OCD

There are lots of types of OCD, and I’ve summarised below the ones I most often work with (although there is more, there’s too many to cover them all here).

Intrusive thoughts can be terrifying—like swerving into traffic, accidentally harming someone, jumping off a balcony, smothering a child or more. These thoughts feel distressing because they are completely the opposite to your true intentions and values.
Research tells us that everyone experiences intrusive thoughts. The key difference? Most people dismiss them, while those with OCD obsess over them, fearing what the thoughts might mean. This can lead to avoidance—steering clear of driving, sharp objects, balconies, or even caring for children.

This type of OCD has thoughts and images of sexual acts. A common one with this is thoughts of being a paedophile, or having raped someone you’ve had sex with, of being sexually attracted to someone inappropriate etc. The fear that they could be true often drives behaviours such as avoiding being near children, avoiding having sexual relationships, avoiding being near anyone that is minimally clothed (swimming, beaches etc). It can also cause an avoidance of watching certain film or TV content.

This is when we start questioning what did/didn’t happen in relation to a real event in the past. The difficulty of not being able to get certainty from others, or from examining our memory, and assuming this means we could have done something wrong/really bad. This can result in preventing yourself from enjoying life, constant memory checking, reassurance seeking etc.

The topic of the real event OCD can change from person to person, but can sometimes be about past sexual experiences.

Relationship OCD is about doubts we have regarding our relationship. This is most typically a romantic relationship. Questions and doubts are usually regarding if you love someone, if they are the right partner, if you are a different sexuality unknowingly, if your partner is cheating on you and other such worries. 
Behaviours can commonly include asking for reassurance, googling for advice, overly monitoring your and their reactions, testing or checking yourself and much more.

This compulsion can result from a range of content of unwanted thoughts. It’s often believing that lots of thoughts we have are wrong, that certain thoughts are cheating or disloyal, that any negative thoughts about a loved one make us a bad person. In these situations, it’s common for those with OCD to confess these thoughts to others, to seek their view on if this makes them bad, to seek their forgiveness etc. 

This type of OCD is driven by the fear you didn’t do something, or that you did it incorrectly, or doubting what you want/feel.
This can cover safety themes with checking behaviours such as doors, ovens, etc.
It can also cover relationship OCD themes where you doubt if you love someone etc.
It can also show up with thinking you’ve said something you haven’t and checking messages sent
This theme is all about doubting yourself in one way or another, and can show up in lots of different ways behaviour wise.

With fear of contamination, there’s often a feeling of being dirty oneself, or of certain items being dirty. There are unrealistic ideas of how germs can transfer and of how harmful they are. Hand washing is common in contamination fear OCD, as is using of anti-bacteria products, avoidance of bodily fluids, and of touching items others have touched. Hand washing or showering is often repeated excessively until a feeling of being clean is achieved. It’s also common to avoid touching items like bins, to avoid public toilets, excessively wash bedsheets, and have extra rituals for handling meat or diary food items.

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OCD Treatment

Treatment for OCD is focused on breaking the stuck cycle. The cycle is maintained by believing our intrusive thoughts to be true/to have meaning and then acting as if these thoughts need to be feared/avoided. For some types of OCD, it is also maintained by the judgment we have of ourselves for the thoughts we are having. By feeding our fears, the problem grows. Therefore, treatment is about doing the opposite and showing our brain that these fears aren’t valid, that the thoughts are lies, and that we don’t need to do the compulsions anymore.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is treatable. CBT for OCD is effective when delivered by an experienced therapist. All techniques I use in sessions have been researched and tested in trials to ensure you are provided with the most up to date and effective treatment for your symptoms.

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ERP Therapist

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP Therapy) is a type of therapy specifically designed for OCD. What this basically means is working on being able to be exposed to a triggering thought/image/situation, and prevent yourself from responding, thereby breaking the OCD cycle.

How I often think of ERP Therapy, is that it’s undoing the behaviours you’ve already developed because of the intrusive thoughts you’ve believed in the past. But actually, this is only one part of treatment, the other half is about preventing you believing new intrusive thoughts and developing new behaviours.

This is why I offer my clients a combination of ERP Therapy and Cognitive Therapy for OCD.

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Therapy for OCD

Cognitive Therapy for OCD looks at some of the underlying factors that make people vulnerable to OCD. These include black and white thinking, catastrophising, believing that having a thought means something, the self-doubt, the impossible self-expectation of the content of our thoughts and much more.

Working on these aspects makes undertaking the ERP work easier, and also crucially helps to prevent the cycle of OCD returning. This is about long term recovery, not just focusing on the main topic your brain is obsessing over right now.

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Online OCD Therapist

I provide Online OCD Therapy for clients in the UK, across Europe, and internationally. Zoom Therapy allows us to work face-to-face virtually.
The advantages of working online include having digital images of diagrams/notes from sessions and more.
Choosing an Online Therapist allows you to find a therapist who is experienced in the problem you are experiencing, irrespective of geographic location.

Time to break free

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Next Steps

Discovery Call

We start with a free 15-minute discovery call to see if we’re the right fit.

Assessment

A 60 or 90 minute assessment to better understand your OCD, what's keeping it going, and a plan for treatment.

Treatment

I recommend sessions weekly at first, reducing over time as you move into OCD recovery. Treatment is available in blocks of 4, 6 and 12 sessions. More info on my booking page

Long-term confidence

By the end, you’ll have a practical blueprint for managing your low self-esteem

Flexible Options: In-person therapy in Cheshire (Middlewich) & online therapy available.

Ready to Get Started?

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