Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Treatment

Your Path to Freedom from Intrusive Thoughts & Rituals

✔ Standard 55-minute sessions

✔ Private, comfortable office or therapy room

✔ Options for weekly, multiple times per week, or monthly sessions

✔ We adjust meeting frequency based on your progress and evolving needs

a person holding a coffee mug while sitting on their patio

Inspiring

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Committed

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Growing

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Caring

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Inspiring 〜 Committed 〜 Growing 〜 Caring 〜

At South Hills Counseling, we believe OCD Treatment offers a powerful opportunity for meaningful change and relief from distressing symptoms.

Our approach creates a comfortable, supportive atmosphere where you can address obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors, discover effective coping strategies, and develop skills that promote lasting recovery and growth.

We tailor our therapeutic methods to your unique needs, helping you break free from the cycle of obsessions and compulsions to live a more flexible, fulfilling life.

SESSION ENVIRONMENT

✔ Relaxed, welcoming space with comfortable seating

✔ Structured sessions that may include exposure exercises

✔ Complete confidentiality, with clear explanation of legal exceptions

✔ Collaborative approach to designing personalized treatment strategies

Understanding Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Do you have recurrent, intrusive thoughts, images, or preoccupations that cause you distress? Do you feel compelled to perform repetitive behaviors such as touching, blinking, counting, cleaning, ritualistic prayer, arranging, checking or avoiding to give you short-term relief from your physical tension or fear? Does it interfere with your quality of life or your ability to function?

If this sounds like you, you may be struggling with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and can benefit from Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT).

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is categorized as an anxiety disorder in which its sufferers experience persistent intrusive thoughts, impulses, and/or images known as obsessions, and may perform senseless repetitive behaviors which temporarily decrease the anxiety caused by these disturbing obsessions.

The obsessions can manifest themselves in a variety of ways, including:

  • Preoccupation with aggressive or violent images

  • Religious concerns and scrupulosity

  • Repugnant sexual or perverted thoughts

  • Safety and health issues

  • Concerns about cleanliness and contamination

  • Need for orderliness and exactness

Compulsions, or repetitive behaviors, may be overt actions (i.e. hoarding, cleaning, arranging, repeating, checking, tapping, rubbing) or mental rituals (i.e. mental counting, mental reviewing, repeated prayer, silent list making, etc.). Typically, rituals are performed to allay fears or ward off physical tension. Unfortunately, they bring only short-term relief to the sufferer and act to further reinforce the obsessions.

Goals of OCD Treatment

OCD Treatment at South Hills Counseling addresses your specific concerns and aspirations.

Personalized Objectives

  • Reducing the frequency and intensity of obsessive thoughts

  • Decreasing reliance on compulsive behaviors and rituals

  • Building tolerance for uncertainty and discomfort

  • Developing healthier responses to anxiety triggers

  • Improving daily functioning at home, work, or school

  • Reducing family accommodation of OCD symptoms

  • Reclaiming time previously spent on rituals and obsessions

Growth-Oriented Approach

Our therapy goes beyond symptom reduction to foster comprehensive development:

  • Focusing on flexible thinking and psychological resilience

  • Building confidence in facing fears and anxiety

  • Enhancing decision-making independent of OCD influences

  • Creating meaningful change that extends beyond therapy sessions

  • Developing a new relationship with uncertainty and discomfort

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

✔ Contamination OCD

✔ Pure-O (primarily obsessional) OCD

✔ Religious/moral scrupulosity

✔ Health anxiety/illness concerns

✔ Hoarding-related OCD

✔ Pediatric and adolescent OCD

Our Approach to OCD Treatment

Evidence-Based Treatment Methods

We offer a type of CBT known as Exposure and Response Prevention (EXRP) which encourages you to systematically face your fears or discomforts, and supports you in reducing your compulsive behaviors.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is quite effective in ameliorating symptoms of OCD. We use a specific type of CBT called Exposure Therapy and Response Prevention (EXRP) in which we introduce specific anxiety-provoking stimuli and help the person habituate to the stressor. This could be a tangible exposure (i.e. touching an allegedly contaminated object) or an imaginal exposure (i.e. inviting distressing thoughts into the mind). Response prevention is a technique in which the person is discouraged from performing any compulsions. Although anxiety is expected to increase with the initial phases of EXRP, the ultimate goal is to decrease the long-term anxiety and time-consuming rituals.

Understanding the Impact of OCD

Individuals with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder fall along a continuum of psychosocial impairment, ranging from a slight impediment in daily functioning to an incapacitating level of interference. The milder cases of OCD may be considered a mere annoyance whereas the more severe cases can result in upheaval and disruption in a person's personal relationships, leisure activities and occupational life.

People with OCD often rely on relatives for emotional, instrumental and informational support. The pathological doubting, so commonly associated with OCD, causes people to doubt their senses (i.e. what they see, hear or touch) and can profoundly impair their daily performance. Thus, they may rely on relatives to offer them constant reassurance or may request that the family participate in their ritualistic behaviors to assure them that they indeed have completed a task or performed it correctly. Families may become overly involved in the patient's decision making and daily responsibilities, further fostering the dependence and insecurities that are characteristic of this disorder.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • No, this is a common misconception. While some people with OCD do have concerns about order and symmetry, OCD encompasses a wide range of obsessions and compulsions that go far beyond preferences for neatness. Many people with OCD experience intrusive thoughts related to harm, contamination, sexuality, religion, relationships, or health that cause significant distress. The hallmark of OCD is not the specific content of the thoughts but the experience of unwanted, intrusive thoughts that cause anxiety and lead to compulsive behaviors aimed at reducing that anxiety.

  • Exposure and Response Prevention (EXRP) is considered the gold standard treatment for OCD, with approximately 70-80% of people who complete treatment showing significant improvement in their symptoms. EXRP is supported by decades of research demonstrating its effectiveness. The key to success is working with a therapist specifically trained in EXRP for OCD and being willing to engage fully in the exposure exercises, which can be challenging but are essential to breaking the OCD cycle.

  • EXRP does involve facing situations that trigger your anxiety, but treatment is conducted in a gradual, controlled manner. We start with exposures that cause moderate anxiety and work up to more difficult ones as your tolerance increases. You'll always be involved in planning exposures, and we'll never force you to do something you're not ready for. The process is collaborative and paced according to your readiness. Over time, you'll likely find that you become more confident in facing situations that previously seemed impossible.

  • Most clients attend weekly sessions for 12-20 weeks, though this varies based on the severity of symptoms and individual progress. Some people with milder OCD may see significant improvement in 8-12 sessions, while those with more severe or complex presentations may benefit from longer treatment. We'll regularly evaluate your progress and adjust the treatment plan accordingly. Many clients continue with less frequent "booster" sessions after completing the initial intensive treatment phase.

  • Rather than thinking about a "cure," it's more accurate to view effective OCD treatment as teaching you to manage symptoms so they no longer interfere with your life. Many people experience significant reduction in symptoms (sometimes up to 80-90%) with proper treatment. Some may experience periods where symptoms are barely noticeable, while others maintain a low level of symptoms but develop the skills to prevent them from interfering with daily life. OCD may wax and wane throughout life, especially during times of stress, but the skills learned in therapy can be applied whenever symptoms begin to intensify.

Ready to Begin Your Journey to Freedom from OCD Today?

We look forward to supporting you on your journey toward greater freedom from OCD, improved daily functioning, and a more fulfilling life.Our team at South Hills is here to help you break free from obsessions and compulsions to live a fuller life!