Targeted, Effective Therapy for OCD & Anxiety
Wondering if you have OCD or anxiety? You might be experiencing:
Feeling stuck in your own head
Exhaustion from trying to manage your thoughts
An urge to seek reassurance constantly
Racing thoughts that keep you up at night
Avoiding certain places, people, or situations
Needing things to be "just right" or perfect
Feeling like you need to check things over and over
Intrusive thoughts that feel disturbing or scary
Constant "what if" thoughts that won't go away
If this sounds familiar, generic advice like positive thinking and relaxation isn’t going to cure you. Sure, those things can help, but they don’t address the root cause. Those cycles of thoughts-gone-wild will come roaring back.
You need a targeted, effective therapy that can retrain your brain’s threat system and break the cycle: ERP.
Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy: the Gold-Standard for OCD & Anxiety Treatment
What is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) Therapy?
ERP is the gold-standard treatment for OCD and is highly effective for anxiety disorders. It works by gradually helping you face the things that trigger your anxiety or obsessive thoughts (exposure) while resisting the urge to perform compulsions or safety behaviors (response prevention).
How it works:
Instead of avoiding what makes you anxious or performing rituals to feel better, you learn to sit with the discomfort. This might sound counterintuitive, but when you stay with the anxiety without doing your usual compulsion, your brain eventually learns that the feared outcome doesn't happen and that you can tolerate the uncertainty and discomfort. Over time, by not giving those feared outcomes a big emotional response, you can reduce and eliminate the anxiety or obsession.
The process:
Jacob will work with you to create a hierarchy of your fears, starting with situations that cause mild anxiety and gradually working up to more challenging ones. Together with Jacob, you will practice these situations, and learn how to combat the fear and discomfort that arises. Each exposure is done intentionally and at your own pace. Over time, the anxiety naturally decreases, and the obsessive thoughts lose their power over you.
What makes ERP different?
Unlike traditional talk therapy that focuses on understanding why you have these thoughts, ERP is action-based. It retrains your brain's response to anxiety triggers through repeated practice. Most people see significant improvement within 12-20 sessions, and the skills you learn become tools you can use for life.
The key is that you're not trying to eliminate anxiety completely. You're learning that you can handle it without relying on compulsions or avoidance.
How Jacob can help
Jacob Weissman, LPC specializes in the treatment of OCD & anxiety through Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy. He received his training in ERP from his time at the Texas OCD Institute, the premier residential facility for the treatment of OCD and related disorders in the Southwest.
Through his training and experience (as well as his own experience with OCD), Jacob is familiar with the challenges of treatment. He knows what doesn’t work, and what does.