The OCD Stories

In episode 324 I chat with Pamela who has kindly agreed to share her OCD story with us.   We discuss her OCD story, stress in childhood, growing up in a religious upbringing, getting a diagnosis, trichotillomania, depression and PTSD, her compulsions and worries, medication and exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), and much more. Hope it helps.   Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/epi...

In episode 323 I chat with Meredith who has kindly agreed to share her OCD story with us.   We discuss her OCD story, sexual orientation theme, medication, the tough time she had going to a general inpatient facility, how OCD symptoms were impacting her relationships, support groups, creating a bespoke support system, exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), how her family learned not to re...

In episode 322 I chat with Dr Clarissa Ong, and Dr Michael Twohig. Clarissa obtained her Ph. D. in Clinical/Counselling Psychology at Utah State University and is currently completing her post-doctoral training at the Center for Anxiety Disorders at Boston University and CBTeam. Michael (Ph. D.)  is a licensed psychologist in the state of Utah and a Professor of Psychology at Utah State University...

In episode 321 I chat with Jenna Overbaugh. Jenna is a therapist who specialises in OCD, and is the clinical marketing director over at NOCD.   We discuss Jenna's OCD story, postpartum OCD, how the US healthcare system could do more to recognise postpartum OCD, how her husband helped her, Jenna shares some of her intrusive thoughts, and some of her exposures (Exposure and Response Prevention - ERP...

In episode 320 I chat with Alexandra Reynolds who has kindly agreed to share her OCD story with us.   We discuss her story, themes: contamination, relationship, health and taboo, we talk about her experiences of exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), we discuss complex trauma (cPTSD) and doing a separate trauma therapy for it, her attachment style, how cPTSD affected her relationships, he...

In episode 319 I chat with Taylor Glendenning who has kindly agreed to share her OCD story with us.   We discuss her story, hit and run themed OCD, her other themes including violence and harm, some of her compulsions, her therapy journey, what's she learned in therapy, medication, the benefit of going to therapy multiple times a week for her, developing the skill of distress tolerance, words of h...

In episode 318 therapist Jonny Say interviews Stuart about his OCD research. Stuart's research used data from the University of Roehampton's ETHOS project. We discuss the motivation for this research, what is humanistic counselling, the research and what was found, what humanistic (and person-centred) counselling can learn from CBT, and what CBT can learn from humanistic counselling, hopes for the...

In episode 317 I chat with Sheryl Paul and Sheva Rajaee. Sheryl is a counselor informed by Jungian depth psychology, and author of the book The wisdom of anxiety. Sheva is a psychotherapist who specializes in the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and other related anxiety disorders, and author of the book Relationship OCD: A CBT-Based Guide to Move Beyond Obsessive Doubt, Anxiety, and Fea...

In episode 316 I chat with Dr Sophie Suri who has kindly agreed to share her OCD story with us.   We discuss her OCD story, trauma from the loss of her parents, health and harm themes, starting therapy, her experience of trauma, starting to see triggers as opportunities to practice her therapy skills, Sophie shares some of the most helpful strategies she learned in therapy, her future research, an...

In episode 315 I chat with Annie Anderson who has kindly agreed to share her OCD story with us.   We discuss her OCD story, relationship OCD, we discuss her religion (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) and how this played into her OCD, worries about her partners physical features and whether she felt in love, opening up to get help, a breakthrough she had, existential worries, findin...

In episode 314 I chat with Robert Fox. Rob is a therapist (LMHC) practicing in Woburn, USA. He specialises in internal family systems and EMDR therapy.   We discuss his own OCD story, shame, internal family systems therapy, we discuss the idea of parts of ourselves, OCD as a protective part of us which may be possibly protecting exiled parts of us, what are exiled parts, he gives examples of IFS i...

In episode 313 I chat with Dr David Burns. David is a psychiatrist, and is currently Adjunct Clinical Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He is the author of the best-selling book, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, as well as many other books, including the more recent book Feeling Great. David also developed the therapy TEAM-CB...

In episode 312 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 is character indictment, the varied emotions behind OCD, confessing as a common compulsion of this theme, a different way to look at the...

In episode 311 I chat with Dr Sam Greenblatt. Sam is a licensed clinical psychologist. We discuss his own OCD setback and the learnings he got from it, we discuss the fear of being cancelled, cancel culture more generally, how the worry of cancel culture started with the 'me too' movement, how some people's OCD has latched on to this, using exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP) for this w...

In episode 310 I chat with Sam who has kindly agreed to share her story with us.   We discuss her story, a sexual assault that came before the OCD, worrying about getting an STI, pedophile themed OCD (pOCD), her compulsions, doing exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), medication and self stigma, what else helps her, where she's at now, and much more. Hope it helps.   Show notes: https://...

In episode 309 I chat with Emily Hemendinger. Emily is a lead OCD therapist at the University of Colorado Health Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic.   We discuss her therapy story and mental health story including OCD and an eating disorder, cognitive flexibility, cognitive remediation therapy, working on perfectionism, social anxiety, social media and tips for the mindful use of it, and much more. Hope...

In episode 308 I chat with Angel Brown who has kindly agreed to share her story with us.   We discuss her story, harm intrusive thoughts, panic attacks, health anxiety, her compulsions, fear of going crazy, doing exposure and response prevention (ERP), helping her family understand how to support her, words of hope, and much more. Hope it helps.   Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/stor...

In episode 307 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. In this episode we discuss who she is and her PhD research, her article 'guilty obsessions', the history of OCD, the history of psycho...

In episode 306 I chat with Dr Eli Lebowitz. Eli created the treatment approach SPACE which stands for Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions. SPACE is a parent-based treatment program for children and adolescents with anxiety, OCD, and related problems. Eli is director of the Program for Anxiety Disorders at the Yale Child Study Center. We discuss his therapy story, why he focused on...

In episode 305 I chat with Sidney Aburi who has kindly agreed to share his story with us.   We discuss his OCD story, intrusive thoughts around religion, avoiding school, the severity of his compulsions, worrying about leaving his country, studying abroad, suicidal themed OCD, sexual orientation themed OCD, his journey of finding effective therapy, panic, words of hope and much more. Hope it helps...

In episode 304 I chat with Katie Strang. Katie is a therapist, who advocates on Instagram through the account OCD Illustrated. We discuss her OCD story, her themes, going to inpatient care, social anxiety, learning to take her symptoms less seriously, how she structures ERP now after therapy, we discuss how friends and family reducing accommodation can make OCD better, the value in connecting with...

In episode 303 I chat with Tapio Antere. Tapio is an aspiring film director from Finland. He has kindly agreed to share his story with us.   We discuss his story, sexual orientation themed OCD, health anxiety, gender identity themed OCD, going to inpatient treatment, meditation, having friends with OCD and sharing humour in tough times, how he views intrusive thoughts, words of hope, his core fear...

In episode 302 I chat with Dr Amy Mariaskin. Amy is a licensed clinical psychologist and director at The Nashville OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center.   We get an update on Amy, Thriving in relationships with OCD, her book, attachment in relationships, relationship themed OCD, the importance of relationships, OCD and friendships, developing exposures to face OCD and strengthen relationships, values an...

In episode 301 I chat with Lucy who has kindly agreed to share her story. In this episode we talk about her story, developing an eating disorder, going to residential treatment, using substances, the effects and trauma from abusive relationships including sexual assault, suicidal themed OCD, somatic OCD, harm themed OCD, some of her compulsions, getting diagnosed, her experience of doing exposure...

In this special episode, Aaron Harvey interviews Crystal Anderson. Aaron chats with Crystal about her story, violent intrusive thoughts, going to inpatient treatment, getting diagnosed in her thirties, how her themes change week to week, getting intrusive thoughts about her dog, sexual orientation and existential themed OCD, they talk about race and culture and how this can impact access to care a...