Clare Blissett CBT
CBT Therapy in Nottingham and online
OCD
OCD is an anxiety disorder, that can take on many forms but is usually very distressing and stops you from enjoying the life you want to live.
People with OCD experience:
Obsessions: Unwanted and intrusive thoughts, images or doubts, which usually lead to distress/anxiety. People often avoid things that may trigger their obsessions and put allot of effort into trying to manage them.
Compulsions: Responses people feel compelled to do to try and get rid of the obsessions, prevent a feared outcome, reduce their sense of uncertainty and manage their anxiety.
If you have OCD you probably spend allot of time trying to control your thoughts and feelings. You may be noticing that the more you try to control them, the more mental space they take up and the less controllable they become. The clients I work with frequently relay that they doubt themselves and reflect that it has a negative impact on their self esteem..
Therapy for OCD
Everyone's needs and journey in therapy is different, because we are all individuals with different strengths, struggles and life experience. Therapy for OCD however will usually incorporate an evidence based approach called exposure and response prevention, which has been shown to be effective and is the recommended therapeutic strategy for this problem.
Exposure and Response prevention involves:
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Exposure: confronting the things that usually trigger anxiety, for example a situation, thought or feeling.
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Response Prevention: Not engaging in the responses you would usually use to try and get rid of the anxiety, prevent the feared outcome or put things right.
I understand that even reading this can feel daunting. Care is given to support you through this process and pace each step, enabling you to move outside your comfort zone without feeling overwhelmed.
We will also address the meaning you give to the obsessions and other areas where we identify it is maintaining the problem.
