The OCD Stories

In this midweek special episode I chat with Ethan Smith, and Dr Jonathan Hoffman of the Neurobehavioral Institute (NBI) in Florida.   We discuss aha moments, Ethan's story and aha moment, aha moments of all kinds, pseudo aha moments, the catalysts for an aha moment, whether people need them, and much more. Hope it helps.   Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/nbi-6   The midweek special e...

In episode 391 I chat with Katryna who has kindly agreed to share her story with us. We discuss her OCD story, masking symptoms, self harm, OCD themes including: harm, symmetry, existential, suicidal, relationship. We talk about compulsively tapping and blinking, panic, her dog Oliver who helped her a lot, how taking mind altering substances triggered an OCD theme, a traumatic event (attempted kid...

In episode 390 I chat with Kevin Ashworth. Kevin is the clinical director & senior clinician at the Northwest Anxiety Institute.   We discuss his therapy story, helping parents help kids and teens with OCD, helping with parental shame and guilt, psychoeducating parents on OCD, reducing accommodations, the therapeutic program SPACE which stands for supportive parenting for anxious childhood emotion...

In episode 389 I chat with Lauren Rosen. Lauren is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and founder of The Center for the Obsessive Mind. We discuss her OCD story, what is mindfulness, some benefits of mindfulness, learning to let go of the question, making space for and accepting the presence of feelings, techniques and practices of mindfulness, and much more. Hope it helps.   Show notes:  h...

In episode 388 I chat with Sara who has kindly shared her story with us.   We discuss her story, themes of OCD: sexual orientation, harm, existential, and relationship. We talk about panic disorder, depersonalisation, depression, substance use, getting diagnosed, dialectal behaviour therapy (DBT), intrusive thoughts, death anxiety, compassion for her younger self, and much more. Hope it helps.   S...

In this midweek special episode I chat with Dr Jonathan Hoffman and Dr Katia Moritz of the Neurobehavioral Institute (NBI) in Florida.   We discuss the analogy Cracking the nut, who cracks the nut (case), working with tough cases of OCD, getting treatment ready, what makes OCD harder for someone, frustration tolerance, comorbidities, getting families and loved ones involved in the treatment proces...

In episode 387 I chat with Emily Hemendinger. Emily is clinical director of the OCD Program at the University of Colorado Health Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic.  We discuss what's new with her, what is executive functioning, how OCD can effect executive functioning, how impaired executive functioning can impact people's quality of life, things that can help, decision making, how exposure and respons...

In episode 386 I chat with Kelley Franke. Kelley is Licensed Marriage and Family therapist and founder of the Center for OCD.   We discuss Kelley's OCD story, experiencing 3 major deaths in a short period of time and how this affected her OCD, existential themed OCD, a suicide attempt, becoming a therapist, how OCD impacted her parenting, advocating for people experiencing OCD, how her approach to...

In episode 385 I chat with Madelaine Sanfilippo. Madelaine is a licensed Marriage and Family therapist in the state of California and Head of Groups at The Center for Anxiety and OCD. We discuss her OCD story, what is a group, how does group therapy differ from individual therapy, the benefits of group therapy, when is group therapy right for you, the flow and process of group therapy, Exposure an...

In episode 383 I chat with Dr Steven Phillipson. Steven is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for OCD. Steven is the Clinical Director at the Center for Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy in New York. We discuss what it means to live within the variability of being human, being authentic, being centred, autonomy, assertiveness, and why this can all be...

In this midweek special episode I chat with Dr Katia Moritz of the Neurobehavioral Institute (NBI) in Florida, and advocates Ethan Smith and Kyle King.   In this episode we discuss Ethan and Kyle's OCD story, their recovery process, stories from their therapy sessions, Katia's thoughts from her perspective, they all share mutual stories from their therapy processes, and much more. Hope it helps.  ...

In episode 383 I chat with Reed Amber who has kindly shared her story with us. Reed is a Sex Educator, Sex Worker and co-founder of ComeCurious and host of the award-winning F**ks Given podcast.  We discuss her story, needing to have order in her life, relying on drugs to cope, resistance to therapy, health anxiety, IBS, depersonalisation and derealisation, making peace with the shadow parts of he...

In episode 382 I chat with Professor David Veale and Dr Rob Willson (PhD). David is a consultant psychiatrist specialising in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Rob is a Cognitive Behaviour Therapist. We discuss an update on them, what is health anxiety, the episodic nature of health anxiety, the similarities and differences between health anxiety and OCD, death anxiety, the 2nd edition of thei...

In episode 381 I chat with Rich Gallagher. Rich is a therapist (LMFT) based in Ithaca, NY. He is the author of numerous self-help books including The Anxiety Journal (Rockridge Press, 2022), Stress-Free Small Talk (Rockridge Press, 2019), How to Tell Anyone Anything (AMACOM/HarperCollins, 2009), and many others. We discuss Rich's therapy journey and OCD story, disgust-based OCD, the neurobiology o...

In episode 380 I chat with Dr Sam Greenblatt. Sam is a licensed clinical psychologist.  We discuss what is new with him, OCD metaphors, what therapy for OCD can change, the difference between pain and suffering, reducing suffering, intensity, duration, frequency, and content. As well as much more. Hope it helps.     Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/sam-380   The podcast is made possib...

In episode 379 I chat with Nate Gruner. Nate is a staff Behavioral Therapist at McLean OCD institute.  I chat with Nate about functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP), the history of FAP, what is FAP, the 5 rules of FAP, why FAP may be helpful for people with OCD, content vs process, the principles of awareness, courage and love. Nate shares some client examples where he has used FAP with OCD, and...

In this midweek special episode I chat with Dr Jonathan Hoffman and Dr Katia Moritz of the Neurobehavioral Institute (NBI) in Florida.   In this episode we discuss what goes on behind the scenes of an OCD treatment centre, how the NBI team work together, what an average day looks like, how the clinic operates, and much more. Hope it helps.   Show notes:  https://theocdstories.com/episode/nbi-3 The...

In episode 378 I chat with Eva Surawy Stepney. Eva is a research student studying for her PhD at the University of Sheffield. Her thesis title is, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and the foundations of 'evidence-based' practice in British Psychology, 1948-1990. I chat with Eva about the history of intrusive thoughts. Hope it helps.   Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/eva-388 The po...

In episode 377 I chat with Mike Heady. Mike (LCPC) is the Co-Owner & Co-Director of the Anxiety and Stress Disorders Institute of Maryland where he has specialized in the treatment of OCD, anxiety disorders, and related conditions for the last 16-years. He is a faculty member of the IOCDF's Training Institute and is a regular presenter at annual conferences for the IOCDF and ADAA.   We discuss wha...

In episode 376 I chat with Ellen who has kindly shared her story with us.   We discuss pocd, intrusive thoughts, self harm, experiencing sexual abuse as a child, going to inpatient and residential treatment, sexual intimacy while having intrusive thoughts, a suicide attempt, getting an OCD diagnosis, arousal non-concordance, shame, exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), acceptance and com...

In episode 375 I chat with Dr Steven Phillipson. Steven is a licensed clinical psychologist who specialises in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for OCD. Steven is the Clinical Director at the Center for Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy in New York. We discuss why all OCD spikes are created equal, the different spikes themes Steve has found that may respond differently to therapy, we talk about certa...

In this midweek special episode I chat with Dr Jonathan Hoffman and Dr Dee Franklin of the Neurobehavioral Institute (NBI) in Florida.   In this episode we discuss what are eating disorders, are eating disorders OCD?, the overlap in criteria in the diagnostical statistical manual for mental disorders (DSM-V), how can viewing eating disorders as OCD help with treatment, avoidant restrictive food in...

In episode 374 I chat with Dr Jeremy Peterman. Jeremy is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and co-director at the Marin center for anxiety and behavioral therapy.   We discuss what is emetophobia, phobia or OCD or both?, client therapy examples, trauma and emetophobia, the worries and compulsions that go along with emetophobia, the treatment for emetophobia, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT),...

In episode 373 I chat with SJ who has kindly shared their story with us.   We discuss their early OCD experiences, nightmares, SJ details many of their compulsions including praying, counting, organising visually, finding good numerical patterns, patterns of 3, restricting food, as well as more. We also discuss trichotillomania (hair pulling), intrusive thoughts around animals, online support grou...

In episode 372 I chat with Jeff who has kindly shared his story with us.   We discuss his story, getting a diagnosis, emetophobia, his role as a mental health counselor, suicidal themed OCD, peadophile themed OCD, sexual orientation themed OCD, depression, somatic themed OCD, worrying about panic, relationship themed OCD, meditation, and much more. Hope it helps.   Show notes: https://theocdstorie...