OCD Treatment in Missouri

You’re tired of constantly feeding your obsessions

 There are thoughts you just can’t get out of your mind no matter how hard you try. Maybe you even know they’re not true. But they’re still there.

Maybe you have a fear that someone will break into your house and you find yourself constantly checking the door. Or you’re afraid of offending someone so you frequently ask for reassurance that they aren’t offended or reread every text you send twenty times. Perhaps what started out as a superstition evolved into something more.

The truth is that there are many, many, many different fears people with OCD experience and a wide range of things people do to try to calm that anxiety. But if your anxiety feels like it’s taking over your life and you find yourself doing things to manage that anxiety that is starting to interfere with your quality of life, it’s time to consider getting some professional help.

Counseling is an important part of OCD Treatment

The good news is that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is very treatable. Honestly, it generally responds pretty well to treatment if you get the right level of support. But it requires a lot of work. And to be honest, a lot of courage. Through counseling, you’ll work with your therapist to look your fears in the eye and face them head-on. You’ll be asked to tolerate your anxiety without acting on it.

For example, if you’re afraid your apartment will be broken into if you don’t check the lock on the door 7x each evening, you’ll be asked at some point to check it only once and then sit with that anxiety and uncertainty. So….it’s hard. And sometimes you need more support than just once-a-week counseling. You may need longer sessions, a therapist to meet you (perhaps virtually) in the environment where you feel anxious to practice exposures or to work with both a psychiatrist and therapist to get the right combination of therapy & medicine. But the good news is it WORKS. You can find freedom from your obsessions & compulsions.

It’s also important to note that while counseling plays a critical part in OCD treatment, it’s often one piece of the puzzle. Comprehensive OCD treatment often involves medication at least in the short term, so it’s important your therapist and anxiety medication provider (usually a psychiatrist) are in contact with one another. Additionally, you may need to involve loved ones in your treatment as well. However, the bottom line is that you CAN find relief from the obsessive thoughts and no longer feel captive to your compulsions.

Symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Everyone’s OCD looks very different. One person might be very worried about germs. Another person’s obsessions could center around a fear their baby will die. Or perhaps your obsession is a fear you might kill yourself. While OCD can look vastly different in each population, here are some common signs we use to diagnose OCD

• Unwanted, intrusive thoughts

• Anxiety about losing control

• Inability to focus on the task at hand

• Strong urge to do things in a particular way

• Daily rituals that cannot be interfered

• Extreme fears about germs, impending doom, disorder, or other thoughts

• Obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions interfere with daily living

 A note about obsessions

Obsessions are thoughts that cloud the brain and distract you from reasonable thinking and processing. Our therapists like to refer to them as “sticky thoughts” because obsessive thoughts are unwanted and seem to stick in your brain. In other words, obsessions are intrusive thoughts that seem to never go away. Having obsessions can mean constantly dealing with repetitive thoughts and ideas that you didn’t even want in the first place. This can lead to severe anxiety if the obsessive thoughts, urges, or desires are not resolved.

A note about compulsions

Compulsions are actions you feel a strong urge to carry out. For many people with OCD, compulsions are the actions you carry out to get rid of the “sticky thoughts” or obsessions. A compulsive action is meant to relieve the stress and worry associated with an obsessive thought. These actions are extreme, excessive, and typically performed like a ritual. A person can form a dependence on the compulsions to “solve” the obsessions, and experience severe anxiety if their patterns and rituals are not carried out. This starts a cycle of obsessions and compulsions that can be hard to stop.

OCD is Best Treated by a Therapist Specializing in Anxiety & OCD

Our therapists truly understand anxiety. In fact, Aspire Counseling is best known for trauma therapy and anxiety treatment. Some of our therapists have additional training in OCD and if you let our client care team know you have (or suspect you may have) OCD we’ll make sure to match you with a therapist who has this specialized training.

More specifically, OCD is best treated with Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). This type of therapy is intense but is really effective with OCD when fully implemented. Our therapists know this and are willing to answer any questions you may have about starting counseling with an OCD therapist.

The Aspire Counseling Approach to OCD Treatment

Whether at our clinic in Columbia, Missouri, or online anywhere in the state of Missouri, our Aspire Counseling therapists are here to help. We take an evidence-based approach to support you in overcoming your OCD symptoms. We will be honest- treatment isn’t going to feel comfortable all of the time. OCD comes with a lot of fear and anxiety. Our approach asks you to face the things you are most afraid of and most uncomfortable with in order to master your obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Facing your OCD can be difficult, but remember, you won’t be doing this alone. Our Aspire Counseling therapists are dedicated to your care and will be there to support you every step of the way. However, we can’t always do it alone. Having an entire team on your side can be extremely important to your OCD treatment.

Your Therapist + Your Psychiatrist + Your Support System = Your OCD Team

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) treatment often requires a team approach to be most successful. Our therapists know this and are willing to be an involved member of your treatment team. This may include us consulting with your psychiatrist on the phone at various points in your care. Or we may encourage you to bring a family member to sessions. Maybe there are even more professionals (ex: a teacher for an adolescent) involved in your care team. We understand the importance of having everyone on the same page when you’re doing the hard work of battling your OCD. Facing your obsessions head-on is hard work, and you deserve to have the support you need. So, please let us know early on who is in your support team and discuss with your counselor how you might be able to involve that support system.

Outpatient counseling isn’t always the right level of care for OCD

It’s worth noting here that occasionally OCD becomes so severe that you need more than just outpatient counseling.  If this is the case, your counselor will be direct with you about their opinion (this may include consulting with your psychiatrist) and help you find the right level of care. Then, if you need to take a temporary break from outpatient counseling appointments we’ll be here when you’re ready to continue your work with us.

What is holding you back from getting help for OCD?

You aren’t sure if you even have OCD.

Maybe you’re reading this and parts of it seem to hit the nail on the head, but other parts just don’t feel like they really fit with what you’re going through. So, now you’re wondering, “Do I have OCD?” That’s ok. We can still help. Your first couple of sessions will be focused on the therapist getting to know you and doing an assessment. They’ll ask about a million questions as they try to understand what is going on for you and how to best help. They may give you some rating scales or use other tools to help come up with the best possible picture of what you’re going through.

And at the end of the day, if you don’t meet the specific criteria for OCD but do have some of the tendencies, much of the same work we’d do to help with OCD (particularly exposure work) will help with other types of anxiety as well. So, even if we go through the assessment process and say, “Actually this sounds more like you’re dealing with panic disorder or generalized anxiety disorder” we’ll still be able to help.

You’ve tried counseling for your anxiety before.

If you’ve lived with OCD for many years, it’s likely you’ve been to counseling before. And maybe that didn’t feel effective and it felt like it really didn’t make a difference. The truth is that most therapists are able to help with generalized anxiety, but not every therapist has the specific training in what works for OCD. So, you may have worked with a great therapist who you have an excellent relationship with but if you didn’t recognize that this was specifically OCD or they didn’t have the specialized training, they may not have used the evidence-based treatment for OCD. That evidence-based treatment (Exposure and Response Prevention or ERP) is really the only thing we know to be very effective for OCD. Not all of our therapists are even trained in ERP, but we started seeking out training for Aspire therapists to learn ERP in Summer 2020 and will continue to slowly add therapists trained in this really effective method. So if you suspect you have OCD please mention it when you first reach out and our client care team will try to match you with an ERP therapist.

Or perhaps you saw a therapist and it DID help but the results didn’t last very long. This can happen. And it can be really frustrating. But the good news is that if you were successful before, you have a good base that we can work with and hopefully even get your OCD symptoms under control faster this time.

Begin Counseling for OCD in Missouri

You don’t have to live with obsession & compulsions.  Counseling can help you find freedom from your anxious thoughts.

If you’ve made it this long living with OCD, you’re probably a pretty incredible, strong person. To be honest, it just takes a lot of strength to be able to live every day trying to silence intrusive, obsessive thoughts. If you freedom from your OCD symptoms, how would that change your life? What could you do with the extra time and mental space that so far has been filled with symptoms of your OCD? How much closer could you get to accomplishing all of your personal goals/

Our Columbia, MO private practice has therapists who specialize in anxiety and have taken the training to help you face OCD specifically. You deserve that support, and we’d love to be part of your healing journey.