Exposure
Together, we’ll practice facing situations that trigger your anxiety—like leaving home after checking the stove once.
Sound like you?
- You checked the stove already. You go back anyway, just to be sure.
- They said they’re not mad at you. You ask again.
- You’d never hurt someone. So why did that thought pop into your head?
Understanding the cycle
Why you keep
getting pulled back in.
You might be halfway to work when a thought hits: What if I left the stove on? You turn around to check, or text your partner to make sure everything’s fine. For a moment, there’s relief.
Then another thought sneaks in: What if I missed something? What if they didn’t really look? And you’re back where you started.
Checking or asking for reassurance can feel like scratching a mosquito bite: satisfying in the moment, but soon the itch is back. The more you scratch, the more you feel you need to.
That’s the OCD cycle: an intrusive thought brings up anxiety, a compulsion offers short-term relief, and the doubt returns. Compulsions can happen in your mind, too—through reviewing, analyzing, or trying to reassure yourself.
How I can help
A different way
to respond.
I use Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), a gold-standard treatment for OCD. Together, we’ll practice facing anxiety without relying on the compulsions that keep the cycle going.
Read more about ERP →Response Prevention
You’ll practice resisting the urge to check again, ask someone for reassurance, or replay it in your head. We’ll work on this together, one step at a time.
More Freedom
Spend less time trying to feel certain and more time doing what matters to you. The goal is to help you get your life back, so anxiety isn’t running the show.
ERP in Real Life
ERP isn’t about being thrown into your biggest fear and told to “deal with it.” We’ll choose manageable steps together and talk through what we’re practicing and why.
Maybe it’s leaving home without checking the stove again. The practice is staying with uncertainty instead of rushing to make it disappear.
Sometimes the checking happens in your head. You might replay a conversation or keep telling yourself that everything is okay. We’ll work on these habits too, so they don’t keep pulling you back in.
Finding the right therapist matters.