The OCD Stories

In episode 520 I chat with Brad Hufford. Brad is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW-C) who specialises in working with OCD. He is a therapist at the Behavior therapy Center of Greater Washington. We discuss Brad's OCD story, being a therapist over the last 30 years, exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), the therapy relationship, the idea of functioning well despite distress is still...

In episode 519 I chat with Ally Kristan who has kindly agreed to share her OCD story with us.  We discuss her story, her compulsions, starting therapy in adolescence, grief, worries of harm coming to others, what else has helped her, intuition, her book, connection with nature, animism, penguins and the Antarctic (Ally's a penguin expert), and much more. Hope it helps.  Show notes: https://theocds...

In episode 518 Jonny Say and I practiced some Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) skills together. Jonny is a UK based therapist and co-director at The Integrative Centre for OCD Therapy.  We discuss the skill dropping anchor, how the skill dipping in and out of the stream can help us learn how to deal with rumination, Jonny and I role play a client session using dipping in and out of the stre...

In episode 517 I chat with Spenser Gabin. Spenser is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist based in Encinitas, California We discuss his OCD, becoming a therapist, his thoughts on Ian O'Brien's episode and clinical perceptive on Ian's research findings on exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP): drop out rate, explaining how ERP links to life, setting expectations, ERP as a lifestyle, an...

In episode 516 I chat with Emma who has kindly agreed to share her OCD story with us.  We discuss OCD around parenting, real event themed OCD, group therapy and experiences of it, rumination, reassurance, dealing with shame, creativity in recovery, and much more. Hope it helps. Show notes:  https://theocdstories.com/episode/emma-516   The podcast is made possible by NOCD . NOCD offers effective, c...

In episode 515 I opened the 10-year anniversary episode up to the listeners. People were able to make a recording of a 30 second sound bite for the show. This episode features all those recordings. Thank you to all those who submitted a sound bite. And thanks to you for listening and for your support over the last 10 years. What a ride it's been! Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/10-ye...

In episode 514 I chat with Dr Ronald Nicholson. Ron is a clinical psychologist. We discuss why it's important to talk about artificial intelligence (AI) and OCD, AI and reassurance, how AI can play into compulsions, cognitive struggles due to over reliance on AI, the detriment of the loss of engagement with other humans, technology reducing distress tolerance, the future of mental health in this A...

In episode 513 I chat with Amanda who has kindly agreed to share her OCD story with us.  We discuss OCD themes of religion, harm and contamination. Amanda talks about depression, controlling food, stopping driving, navigating the Covid pandemic and OCD, compulsions controlling other people,   therapy, grief and loss, figuring out it was ok not to do her compulsions, exposure and response preventio...

In episode 512 I chat with Dr Steven Phillipson and Sarah. 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. He is joined by one of his patients, Sarah, who has kindly agreed to share her story. We discuss what is metaphysical themed OCD, what is metap...

In episode 511 I chat with Melissa Mose. Melissa is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who treats OCD. Melissa is president of the IOCDF affiliate OCD SoCal. We discuss her new book for therapists on internal family systems therapy (IFS) for OCD, what is IFS, integrating IFS and exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), working with parts that get in the way of therapy, noticing and wo...

In episode 510 I chat with Dr Steven Poskar. Steven is a psychiatrist and clinical director of OCD NYC. He is also a member of the Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board of the International OCD Foundation. We discuss his therapy journey, myths and misconceptions around OCD medication, SSRIs for OCD, choosing an SSRI based on their side effect profiles, weaning off medication, augmenting medicatio...

In episode 509 I chat with Ian O'Brien. Ian is a psychotherapist based in Dublin, Ireland, who specialises in OCD. We discuss his OCD story including relationship OCD (rOCD) and pOCD, getting therapy, support groups, and becoming a therapist. We then discuss his research on why people struggle to engage with ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention) in which he analysed over 100 interviews from The O...

In episode 508 I chat with Michael Stier. Michael is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) and Director of Education and Training at the Anxiety Specialists of Atlanta. We discuss his therapy story, working with health anxiety, the health anxiety book he co-wrote, what is health anxiety, insight in health anxiety, bodily sensations, values based living, and much more. Hope it helps. Sh...

In episode 507 I chat with Chrissie Hodges. Chrissie is a Peer Support specialist, founder of OCD Gamechangers, and Author of 'Pure OCD: The Invisible Side of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder'. Chrissie was awarded the hero award at the 24th IOCDF conference in San Fran. We discuss her community, acceptance and radical acceptance, what is acceptance, what are we actually accepting, what acceptance is...

In episode 506 I chat with Dr Sam Greenblatt. Sam is a licensed clinical psychologist.  We discuss an update on him, relationship OCD (ROCD) using his personal story as a case study, improving ROCD treatment, exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), internal family systems (IFS) therapy, working with other emotions around ROCD, feeling emotions without analysing them, improving relationship...

In episode 505 I chat with Dr Fahad Khan. Fahad is a licensed clinical psychologist. He currently serves as the Deputy Director at Khalil Center, providing psychological services while supervising clinical and research work. He co-wrote The Islamic Workbook for Religious OCD: A Guide for Overcoming Intrusive Thoughts and Compulsions. We discuss his therapy story, waswasa, compulsive prayer, helpin...

In episode 504 I chat with Jack who has kindly agreed to share his OCD story with us.  We discuss his OCD story, guilt and shame, diet and exercise as part of OCD, an eating disorder diagnosis, exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), medication, support groups, being creative, expressing through poetry, the idea of signal vs noise, self compassion, he reads some of his poetry, and much mor...

In episode 503 I chat with Samantha Faden and Dr Jenifer Cullen. Samantha is autistic and has lived experience with OCD. Sam is the client of Dr Cullen. Jenifer M. Cullen, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist at the McLean OCD Institute. We discuss their therapy relationship as therapist and client, how Sam's therapy journey has gone, what worked, how they learned together over time, getting a...

In episode 502 I chat with Christopher Weston. Chris is a therapist (LMFT) specialising in OCD. We discuss his OCD story, his early life experiences that were challenging, panic attacks, somatic/sensorimotor OCD, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and much more. Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/chris...

In episode 501 I chat with Alexandra Reynolds. Alexandra is an OCD Advocate, Community Support Group Leader at NOCD, and is currently doing her graduate clinical training.  We discuss her health anxiety story, stigma around the diagnosis, running her health anxiety support group, shame and guilt around having health anxiety and the compulsions, experiencing stigma or judgement from family and heal...

In episode 500 I, Stuart Ralph, reflect on my journey with The OCD Stories podcast over the last nearly 10 years. To do this I took a hike in the Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales, UK. Thanks for listening over the last 500 episodes! Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/500 The podcast is made possible by NOCD . NOCD offers effective, convenient therapy available in the US and outside...

In episode 499 I chat with Dr Ronald Nicholson. Ron is a clinical psychologist currently practicing as a post-doctoral fellow at Dr. Steven Phillipson's Center of Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy. We discuss humour in OCD therapy, why humour can help, finding the right balance between humour and seriousness, humour as a way of showing irrelevance, Dr Phillipson asks a few questions including wha...

In episode 498 psychotherapist Jonny Say interviews Stuart. Stuart is the host and founder of The OCD Stories podcast. Stuart is a psychotherapist, and co-founder of The Integrative Centre for OCD Therapy. In the build up to episode 500 Jonny interviews me (Stuart), we discuss the history of the podcast and some of my personal history, how the podcast helped me in the early days and which topics o...

In episode 497 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 identity contamination as a theme of OCD, the amygdala, not buying into OCD themes, talking about OCD with people, Dr Phillipson's Cancel Tok...

In episode 496 I chat with Riley who has kindly agreed to share her OCD story with us. We discuss how OCD latched on to her sport (swimming), compulsive exercise, her different compulsions, obsessions around being strong, getting therapy, restricting foods, residential treatment, medication, finding joy in activities again, words of hope, and much more. Hope it helps. Show notes: https://theocdsto...