You know something is wrong — and you’ve probably known for a while
Maybe you spend hours trapped in loops of doubt. Checking, seeking reassurance, replaying conversations, avoiding things that trigger the spiral. Maybe you have thoughts that horrify you — thoughts about harm, contamination, religion, relationships, or your own identity — and you’ve never told anyone because you’re ashamed of what they might mean about you.
You’ve likely Googled your symptoms more times than you can count. You might have already seen a therapist. Maybe it helped a little, or maybe it made things worse without either of you understanding why.
What you’re experiencing has a name. And more importantly — it’s treatable.
What OCD actually is
OCD is not about being neat or organized. It’s a cycle of intrusive thoughts, images, urges, or doubts (obsessions) that trigger intense anxiety or distress — followed by compulsions designed to neutralize that distress, even temporarily.
The compulsions can be obvious: washing, checking, arranging. But they can also be invisible: mental reviewing, seeking reassurance, Googling, praying, or trying to neutralize a thought with a “good” thought. The relief is always temporary. The cycle always returns — usually stronger.
OCD is one of the most misunderstood and misdiagnosed conditions in mental health. Many people with OCD don’t recognize it in themselves because it doesn’t look like what they’ve seen portrayed in movies or television.
OCD looks different for everyone
OCD clusters around whatever matters most to you — which is why the content of obsessions feels so personal and so distressing. Common presentations include:
Contamination OCD — fear of germs, illness, chemicals, or contamination spreading to yourself or others. May involve excessive washing, cleaning, or avoidance of certain places or objects.
Harm OCD — intrusive thoughts about accidentally or intentionally harming yourself or people you love. The thoughts are ego-dystonic — meaning they go against everything you value — which is precisely why they’re so disturbing.
Pure O — a term used for OCD where compulsions are primarily mental rather than visible. Includes mental reviewing, reassurance-seeking through Googling, and attempts to neutralize or suppress thoughts. Pure O is still OCD — the compulsions are just harder to see.
Relationship OCD (ROCD) — obsessive doubts about your relationship. Am I with the right person? Do I really love them? Are they attracted enough to me? The doubt feels urgent and never fully resolves, regardless of how much reassurance you seek.
Scrupulosity — OCD centred around morality, religion, or ethics. Fear of having sinned, of being a bad person, of having done something wrong without realizing it.
Health anxiety OCD — repeated checking of symptoms, Googling medical conditions, seeking reassurance from doctors or loved ones that you’re not seriously ill.
Existential OCD — obsessive questioning about the nature of reality, consciousness, existence, or meaning. The questions feel urgent and unanswerable, and the uncertainty is unbearable.
Sexual orientation or gender OCD (SO-OCD / TOCD) — intrusive doubts about one’s sexual orientation or gender identity, causing significant distress and compulsive checking or mental reviewing.
If you recognize yourself in any of these — or in something not listed here — you’re in the right place.
Why the therapy you’ve tried before may not have worked
This is important, and it’s something most people with OCD discover the hard way.
Standard talk therapy and general counselling are not effective treatments for OCD. In fact, certain approaches — like exploring the meaning of intrusive thoughts, providing reassurance, or helping you understand why you have the thoughts — can inadvertently make OCD worse by feeding the cycle.
OCD requires a specific, evidence-based treatment called Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). Without it, even well-meaning therapy often becomes another form of reassurance-seeking, and the OCD adapts accordingly.
This is not a reflection on you or on the therapists you’ve seen. Most therapists are simply not trained in ERP. It’s a specialist skill — and it’s what I do.
What ERP actually involves
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is the gold-standard treatment for OCD, recommended by the World Health Organization and supported by decades of research.
ERP works by gradually and systematically exposing you to the thoughts, situations, or triggers that activate your OCD — while supporting you to resist the compulsive response. Over time, your nervous system learns that the anxiety decreases on its own without the compulsion, and the thoughts lose their power.
This sounds confronting. It is, at times. But it’s also structured, collaborative, and done at a pace that works for you. You are never pushed into something you’re not ready for.
What ERP is not: it is not about eliminating intrusive thoughts. It’s about changing your relationship to them so they no longer control your behaviour or your life.
One thing worth knowing upfront: I won’t provide reassurance in our sessions. This isn’t because I don’t care — it’s because reassurance is a compulsion, and providing it would feed your OCD rather than help you recover. This is one of the most important and most misunderstood aspects of effective OCD treatment.
What working together looks like
We begin with a thorough assessment to understand your specific OCD presentation — the thoughts, triggers, compulsions, and avoidance patterns that are keeping you stuck.
From there we build a collaborative treatment plan and move through ERP at a pace that challenges you without overwhelming you. Sessions are 50 minutes either weekly or twice a week and delivered online, meaning you can access treatment from anywhere in Ontario.
Most people with OCD see meaningful improvement within 12–20 sessions, though this varies depending on the complexity of your presentation and how long OCD has been present.
You don’t have to keep managing this alone
OCD is one of the most treatable conditions in mental health — with the right treatment. If you’ve been struggling for months or years, trying to logic your way out of the cycle or white-knuckling through each day, there is another way.
I’d be glad to hear from you.