Obsessive-compulsive disorder (also known as OCD) is a serious condition. Individuals struggling with OCD may feel overwhelmed, discouraged, and all-consumed by their diagnoses. They may not know where to turn, or how to uncover the path to freedom, a path to recovery. Therapists may be crucial to individuals’ abilities to overcome OCD, controlling its symptoms instead of the symptoms controlling them.
How does a therapist help an individual overcome OCD? First, the therapist provides a safe, nonjudgemental environment for the client (Podolan & Gelo, 2023). Within this environment, the individual can disclose the struggles experienced with OCD and make a plan to address them. Most often, this plan will include exposure response prevention, or ERP, which is consider the “gold standard” for OCD treatment (Hezel & Simpson, 2019). In exposure therapy, the therapist will work with an individual to scaffold fears from least to most, and gradually face those fears (Anxiety and Depression Association of America, n.d.). Facing those fears may include both imaginal and real-life exposure. The goal is to build strength to not engage in compulsions, even when triggered by the fear (obsession) that causes them (International OCD Foundation, n.d.). With repetition, the brain can learn that the trigger is either not a threat, or a threat that the individual can control without practicing the compulsion. Facing fears without practicing compensatory behaviors may feel terrifying to an individual, but this is where safety with the therapist comes in. The therapist is there to support and co-regulate the client so that the individual feels safe doing the work.
A therapist can also use other techniques to help an individual overcome OCD. A therapist may teach individuals habit reversal, which includes changing responses to triggers (Anxiety and Depression Association of America, n.d.). Cognitive therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) are other treatments that a therapist may offer to help an individual gain power over the cycle of obsessions and compulsions (Hezel & Simpson, 2019). The purpose of the therapist in OCD treatment is to use his or her expertise to build and equip strength in the individual so that the individual can resist engaging in distressing compulsions.
Can individuals completely overcome obsessive compulsive disorder? Research does not have a definitive answer. Research does show that therapy can greatly help individuals live whole, fulfilling lives, however. Individuals need not struggle alone indefinitely. Therapists are available to partner with them and offer expertise and skills to overcome the hold that obsessions and compulsions have.
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