OCD and Anxiety Therapy in Louisiana
A thought or feeling shows up uninvited and won't let go. You check, you reassure yourself, you try to relax. Maybe it helps for a moment, until it doesn't. For folks living with anxiety or OCD, this is an all too familiar occurrence.
You may have tried medication and found that your symptoms still seem to hang around. Or maybe you’ve tried therapy before and found it didn't fully work, or weren't sure it was the right kind.
The good news: OCD and anxiety are among the most treatable conditions in mental health when they're met with the right kind of therapy. Specialized, evidence-based therapy can help you take back your life from anxiety and OCD, and it’s available right here in Louisiana.
Evidence-based treatment for OCD and anxiety in Lake Charles and throughout Louisiana via telehealth.
If just talking about your OCD or Anxiety hasn’t helped, there’s a reason.
Many of the clients I see have tried therapy before. In fact, often times I see folks who have already spent years in therapy, talking about their symptoms, their possible origins, identifying triggers, and trying to understand their thoughts and feelings.
As a result, they often understand very well their anxiety or OCD. However, they often still experience symptoms despite this hard-won insight.
That’s because OCD and anxiety don’t persist simply because a person lacks insight. Anxiety and OCD are maintained by the things we do in response to anxiety: avoiding situations, checking for danger, seeking reassurance, monitoring our thoughts or physical sensations, trying to control what we think and feel, or repeatedly analyzing a problem in an attempt to finally feel certain. These responses make sense. After all, when you're anxious, you want the anxiety to stop.
The problem is that what makes you feel better in the short term can sometimes teach your brain that the anxiety really was something you needed to escape from. That's what specialized treatment is designed to address.
What I treat
OCD isn't just about being neat, organized, or particular. It can involve intrusive thoughts, images, urges, doubts, and fears that feel completely inconsistent with who you are.
You may be dealing with contamination fears, harm OCD, relationship OCD, scrupulosity, health OCD, mental health OCD, false memories, "Pure O," or another presentation that is difficult to explain to other people.
The theme can change. The underlying process is often much more consistent.
Learn more about OCD Therapy in Louisiana
Anxiety can show up in a lot of different ways.
You may be dealing with persistent worry, panic attacks, fear of social situations, avoidance of places where you might panic, a specific phobia, or ongoing concern about your health.
Sometimes anxiety is obvious. Sometimes it looks like constantly thinking things through, checking, researching, preparing, or trying to make sure nothing can go wrong.
I provide treatment for Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia, Social Anxiety Disorder, Health Anxiety, Specific Phobias, and related anxiety problems.
Learn more about Anxiety Therapy in Louisiana
How I treat OCD and Anxiety
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
ERP is the most established psychological treatment for OCD and is also an important treatment for many anxiety disorders. It involves deliberately confronting feared thoughts, situations, sensations, or uncertainty while reducing the compulsions, avoidance, reassurance seeking, and other behaviors that keep the problem going.
My approach to ERP is informed by inhibitory learning and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). The goal isn't simply to make anxiety disappear. It's to help you learn that you can experience uncertainty and discomfort without having to organize your life around avoiding them.
Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT)
I-CBT is a newer evidence-based treatment for OCD that takes a different approach to understanding obsessional doubt. Rather than focusing primarily on exposure, I-CBT examines the reasoning process that allows OCD's doubts to feel believable in the first place. Treatment focuses on helping you recognize when OCD has pulled you away from what you actually know and into a hypothetical story about what might be true.
I-CBT has a smaller evidence base than ERP because it is a newer treatment, but the research supporting it is growing, and it offers a legitimate alternative treatment approach for people with OCD.
Learn more about Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT)
Metacognitive Therapy (MCT)
MCT is particularly focused on worry and rumination. People with chronic anxiety often develop beliefs about worry itself: that worrying helps them prepare, that they need to think something through until they are certain, or that stopping their worry means they are being irresponsible. MCT targets these beliefs and the patterns of thinking that keep worry going. It has a growing evidence base for anxiety disorders, particularly Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
OCD and Anxiety Therapy Anywhere in Louisiana
I provide in-person therapy at my office in downtown Lake Charles, LA, as well as secure online therapy to adults anywhere in Louisiana. Whether you're in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Lafayette, Alexandria, Monroe, Shreveport, Ruston, Hammond, Houma, or a smaller community, telehealth makes specialized treatment much more accessible.
Ready to start?
Reach out now to schedule a free consultation, book your first appointment, and get more information.