OCD & Anxiety Treatment

I specialize in psychotherapy for children, adolescents, and emerging adults to address anxiety and related concerns, such as OCD. While I tailor treatment to meet the individual needs of my clients, I most often use cognitive-behavioral strategies. Specifically, I utilize Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) to address OCD. ERP is an evidence-based treatment that helps individuals with OCD better recognize intrusive thoughts and practice not engaging in their compulsive behaviors to break the cycle of OCD.  I also use cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to help individuals with anxiety better challenge their anxious thoughts and systematically face their fears through graduated exposures. Although it is normative to experience some level of anxiety in daily life, signs that therapy could be beneficial include:

  • avoidance of daily activities (e.g., school, social outings)

  • increased physiological distress (e.g., gastrointestinal distress, headaches)

  • difficulty sleeping or relaxing

  • persistent worry that interferes with completing daily tasks

  • feeling like you “have” to do certain behaviors to reduce the stress of your intrusive thoughts or to prevent bad things from happening

  • taking much longer than necessary to complete routine tasks due to checking, re-writing, or perseverating on making it “perfect”

  • sticky, intrusive thoughts that deeply upset you that you cannot seem to get out of your head and interfere with daily life

Assessment

I use gold-standard, evidence-based assessment strategies to assess for autism in children and adolescents. Each assessment includes a comprehensive clinical interview with caregivers, cognitive testing, autism-specific testing (ADOS-2), and additional academic and psychological measures that are carefully selected to match the needs of individual clients. For example, my evaluations often include assessment for co-occurring neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., ADHD, intellectual disability). Feedback is provided to families shortly after testing, along with a high-quality report detailing assessment findings, diagnoses, and recommendations.

When and why does my child need an assessment?

Early detection of autism in childhood can help identify targets for intervention and set children and families up for long-term success. I evaluate children as young as 3 years old. The following may be signs that your child could benefit from an assessment:

  • difficulties communicating (including non-verbal communication, such as limited eye contact or limited non-verbal gestures)

  • decreased interest in and/or difficulty regarding interacting with others

  • repetitive motor movements or verbalizations

  • limited imaginative play or play that is especially repetitive

  • resistance to changes in routine and/or transitions between activities

  • significant sensory difficulties

What is involved in an assessment?

The assessment process is made up of three steps:

  1. Intake. During the intake, I will meet with you and your child to get to know your family and gather information to inform the tests to be included during the testing day.

  2. Testing. During the approximately 3-hour testing appointment, I will work with your child and engage them in a series of activities to assess abilities such as cognition, social-communication, and executive functioning.

  3. Feedback. During the 60-minute feedback session, I will meet with you and other caregivers important in your child’s life to discuss the results of testing and answer any questions you may have. Following this meeting, you will receive a copy of your child’s written report.