Kaduk Therapy
Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Online in Washington state
Do I have OCD?
Majority of people with OCD go misdiagnosed or undiagnosed for 9-17 years after their symptoms first appear.
OCD’s 2 parts:
Obsessions: intrusive and unwanted thoughts, images, sensations, or urges that bring on anxiety or disgust; and sometimes considered “taboo”.
Compulsions: are what you do in response to obsessions. Compulsions can be mental or physical acts that someone does to try and reduce or neutralize the anxiety or disgust.
This combination leaves you trapped in a time-consuming cycle of anxiety and relief-seeking patterns.
People often feel embarrassed by these rituals, especially when compelled to engage with them in front of others. This leads to your world becoming smaller and smaller as you avoid more things to try and not feel anxiety.
OCD is not the same as Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and the treatment of symptoms is different.
If you experience the distress of OCD you understand too well the pressure it puts on a person. And when left untreated it can sneak into every aspect of your life.
Good news is that OCD is treatable.
Common Types of OCD
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Fear and anxiety of germs, dirt, or illness.
To reduce this distress, people engage in compulsive behaviors such as excessive hand washing, cleaning, avoiding certain places or objects, or seeking reassurance.
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Extreme need for objects, thoughts, or actions to be arranged in a specific, precise order or symmetry.
Individuals with this type of OCD often experience intense discomfort, anxiety, or distress if things are perceived as uneven, misaligned, or disorderly.
Rituals may include repeatedly arranging or rearranging items until they feel "just right," aligning objects symmetrically, or performing actions in a particular sequence.
These behaviors are driven by an internal urge to reduce distress rather than by practical necessity.
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Constant, unwanted thoughts about accidentally hurting themselves or someone else. They worry they might cause harm by making a mistake or acting without thinking.
To feel better, they might do things like checking over and over, asking others for reassurance, or going over things in their mind to make sure everything is okay.
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Unwanted, distressing, and often taboo thoughts, images, or impulses.
These thoughts often involve things that are seen as wrong or not okay, like violence, hurting others, sexual topics, or saying bad things about religion.
These thoughts show up without warning and don’t match the person’s beliefs or who they think they are. This can cause a lot of worry or guilt.
While the thoughts are generally scary or disturbing, the person does not want to act on them. These thoughts feel wrong to the person—they don’t fit with how the person sees themselves.
How I Can Help
I offer evidence-based treatment methods tailored to your unique experience with OCD.
A few things we’ll explore early on:
Identifying triggers
Responses to triggers (physical, mental, emotional, and other acts)
Values - what’s important to you and what would you rather be doing instead of being caught up in OCD
I’m trained in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), considered the gold standard for treating OCD.
I also use other helpful approaches such as ACT and CBT to supplement treatment.
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ERP teaches you how to face your fears without doing your usual habits or rituals.
Here's how it works:
People with OCD can feel really anxious about something—like germs or something bad happening—and they do certain things (like washing hands over and over or checking locks) to feel better.
"Exposure" means slowly facing the thing that makes you anxious—like touching a doorknob or facing the thought “someone might break in because I didn’t lock the door”
"Response Prevention" means not doing the compulsion that usually makes you feel better—such as, delaying or reducing washing hands or walking away without checking again.
By practicing tolerating the uncertainty, your brain learns that you can handle the anxiety or disgust, and go on to live your life and engage with what’s important to you.
Think of it like this: You’re training your brain to be brave and showing it that you don’t need to do those OCD habits to be safe.
You can manage it.
