ERP is the gold-standard treatment for OCD, backed by decades of research. It works by gently helping you face the situations, thoughts, or images that trigger your OCD without doing the compulsions you'd normally use to feel safe. This isn't about throwing you into the deep end. We start with small, manageable steps, and you're in control the whole time. Over weeks and months, your brain learns that the anxiety fades on its own, and the urges lose their grip.

In sessions, you'll learn that you’re stronger than the discomfort, and far more capable than OCD wants you to believe. The goal isn't to never feel anxious; it's to stop letting anxiety run your life.

Learn more about ERP for OCD

Scrupulosity is a form of OCD where intrusive thoughts latch onto faith, morality, or spiritual worth. Someone with scrupulosity might fear they've committed an unforgivable sin, said a prayer incorrectly, or had a "bad" thought that makes them a bad person. The compulsions often look spiritual on the surface, like excessive prayer, repeated confessions, mentally reviewing past actions, or seeking reassurance from pastors or loved ones. But instead of bringing peace, these rituals deepen the cycle of doubt and exhaustion.

Our OCD specialist, Julie Miller, is also experienced in working religious trauma, which can sometimes coincide with Religious OCD. In session, she helps clients untangle the difference between genuine faith and OCD-driven fear. Using ERP, you'll gently face the thoughts and situations that trigger your scrupulosity, like sitting with uncertainty about a sin, reading a passage that feels triggering, or resisting the urge to mentally confess. You’ll learn that you can hold space for doubt without being consumed by it. You don't have to choose between your faith and your mental health.

Harm OCD involves intrusive, unwanted fears of accidentally causing harm to yourself or someone else. You might worry you hit a pedestrian while driving, left the stove on, forgot to lock the door, or sent a text that will ruin someone's life. These thoughts feel incredibly real and urgent, even though they go against everything you value. The compulsion is to check, check again, and then check one more time, or to mentally replay events to make sure nothing bad happened. It can make simple tasks like driving or leaving the house feel exhausting.

In session, Julie will help you face the uncertainty at the core of these fears. You learn that certainty is not required for safety, and that the anxiety eventually fades on its own. The goal is to stop living in a state of hypervigilance and start trusting yourself again.

Contamination OCD goes far beyond a simple preference for cleanliness. It's a consuming fear that you or someone you love will be harmed by germs, chemicals, bodily fluids, sticky substances, or even abstract contaminants like a "bad feeling" or a person's "energy." You might avoid touching certain surfaces, wash your hands until they crack, re-cook food to be sure it’s fully safe, or mentally track what has been "contaminated" and what hasn't. The rituals provide temporary relief, but the anxiety keeps coming back, and the list of safe things keeps shrinking.

In session, Julie will guide you through carefully chosen exposures that help you reclaim your life. This might mean touching a doorknob in a public restroom and waiting a few minutes to wash or sitting with the discomfort of not knowing whether something is truly clean. Over time, you learn that discomfort is not danger and that you can handle uncertainty. The goal is not to stop caring about hygiene. It is to stop letting contamination fears dictate where you go, what you touch, and how you live.

"Pure O" is short for "purely obsessional" OCD, but the name is a bit misleading. There are still compulsions, they just happen internally. Someone with Pure O experiences intrusive, disturbing thoughts often around taboo topics like violence, sex, or religion. Instead of visible rituals like hand washing or checking locks, the compulsions are mental. You might mentally review the thought to see if it felt "wrong enough," run through past memories to check if you've ever acted on similar impulses, seek reassurance by researching online, or silently repeat phrases to neutralize the thought. It can be exhausting and isolating because the struggle is invisible to everyone around you.

In session, Julie will help you stop fighting the thoughts. Using ERP, you'll practice letting intrusive thoughts come and go without engaging them, sitting with the discomfort of not knowing what a thought "means" about you, and resisting the urge to mentally analyze or neutralize. The goal is not to stop having intrusive thoughts. It is to stop being afraid of them and to get your time and energy back from the mental rituals.

When OCD shows up alongside ADHD, autism, or AuDHD, it looks different than OCD on its own. ADHD can make intrusive thoughts harder to shake and turn compulsions into impulsive reassurance-seeking. Autism can blur the line between genuine routine needs and OCD-driven rituals, making it hard to tell what's helpful and what's the disorder. Either way, standard OCD treatment often misses these layers.

Julie has specialized knowledge in working with neurodivergent clients. She adapts ERP to fit how your brain actually works, not how a textbook says it should. That might mean shorter exposures, sensory accommodations, or executive function support like external reminders. She treats your neurotype as part of the picture and works with it, not against it.