The OCD Stories

In episode 399 I chat with Logan who has kindly agreed to share his OCD story with us.   We discuss his story, relationship OCD, ADHD, therapy, how boredom played into the OCD, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and much more. Hope it helps.   Show notes: https://theocdstories.com/episode/logan-399   The podcast is made possible by NOCD. NOCD offers effective, convenient therapy available in...

In episode 398 I chat with Dr. Maggie Perry. Maggie is a licensed clinical psychologist based in Denver, Colorado and the founder of Relatable Health.   We discuss an update on her, mood disorders, how mood disorders affect OCD and vice versa, working with mood disorders alongside OCD, how to adjust therapy for the two disorders, behavioural activation, negative core beliefs, group therapy for OCD...

In episode 397 I chat with Dr Anthony Pinto (Ph. D). Anthony is Director of the Northwell Health OCD Center at Zucker Hillside Hospital on Long Island in NY, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. Dr. Pinto has an extensive publication record, with over 100 manuscripts/chapters on obsessive compulsive disorder and related con...

In this midweek special episode I chat with licensed psychologists Dr Michele Bechor and Dr Ciana Mickolus of the Neurobehavioral Institute (NBI) in Florida.   We discuss their stories, a team approach to OCD treatment, what's it like working in a big multidisciplinary team, the benefits for clients and for staff, a day in the life at NBI, and much more. Hope it helps.   Show notes: https://theocd...

In episode 396 I chat with Dr Jesse Spiegel and Dr Sarah A. Haider. Jesse and Sarah are licensed clinical psychologists working with OCD.   We discuss their therapy stories, why exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP) doesn't work sometimes, including intensity, frequency, and duration. We also cover asking clients to tell on themselves, psychoeducation, checking for small compulsions that...

In episode 395 I chat with Hannah who has kindly agreed to share her OCD story with us.  We discuss harm worries around her children, hit and run themed OCD, finding a therapist who is an specialist in OCD, her core fears, doing exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP), doing ERP while raising kids, medication, support groups, OCD and faith, and much more. Hope it helps.    Show notes: https...

In episode 394 I chat with Will who has kindly agreed to share his OCD story with us.   We discuss his story, growing up in a toxic environment, intrusive thoughts, confessing as a compulsion, perfectionism, being active duty in the US military, identity struggles, a bad relationship with alcohol, pOCD, relationship themed OCD, sexual orientation themed OCD, suicidal themed OCD, harm themed OCD, a...

In episode 393 I chat with Jonny Say. Jonny is a UK based therapist and co-director at The Integrative Centre for OCD Therapy.  We discuss our new OCD centre, we talk about 9 barriers to OCD recovery, including using exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP) with the agenda of controlling symptoms, automatic compulsions, secondary spikes, intense feelings, difficulties with urge surfing, sham...

In episode 392 I chat with 6 members of an OCD support group. The support group members on the show were Bri, Bridget, Cassie, Joe, Kim, Steve, and Dr Lauren Wadsworth.   We discuss what is the group about, what's it like being in an OCD support group, the benefits of being in an OCD support group, they share some nice memories of being in the group, setting goals within the group, managing challe...

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...