INDIVIDUAL THERAPY
Where you are right now is not permanent.
I know you have tried a lot of strategies and they did not work. You can make meaningful changes and learn different skills to cope with your anxiety.
Let's figure out what that looks like together.
OCD Specialist
New York City
Anxiety Therapist
Where You Are Today
Maybe OCD is making you think you are your intrusive thoughts and that you have to complete compulsions to feel "safe." By giving in to your compulsions and treating your intrusive thoughts as facts and not thoughts, you trust yourself less and trust the OCD messaging more. From there OCD takes more and more bandwidth. The compulsions are giving you short-term relief, but are long-term keeping you stuck. OCD is taking up space you want back and narrating a story about you that is not true.
Maybe anxiety has been quietly making your decisions for you for years. Keeping you from applying for that role or job, having that conversation, taking the trip, or trusting yourself. Maybe emetophobia has made your world feel smaller, reshaping what you eat, where you go, and what you are willing to do. Maybe perfectionism and people pleasing have kept you so busy performing a version of yourself that isn't authentically you.
You are not broken. You are stuck in a pattern. And patterns, once you can see them clearly, can be changed.
That is exactly what we are going to do.
Where You Are Going
By the time we have done this work together, anxiety is no longer making your decisions. You know your specific OCD and anxiety loop, you have the skills to interrupt it, and you trust yourself to move through hard moments without being derailed by them.
You are spending less time in your head and more time living. You are doing things anxiety told you that you could not. You are getting to know yourself, the real version, outside of the anxious stories you built to survive.
Some clients finish their initial goals and create new therapy goals to accomplish. Not because they need to, but because they want to. They use the skills to date themselves, discover what they actually want, and build a life that is authentically theirs.
That is not anxiety management. That is a different life.
What Sessions Are Actually Like
Sessions are up to 53 minutes, held virtually, from wherever you actually feel like yourself.
I am not going to sit quietly and nod while you talk. I am going to be curious, direct, and engaged. I take notes. I will remember what you said three sessions ago and connect it to what you are telling me today. I will name patterns you may not have noticed yet and I will be honest with you about what I am seeing.
Sessions are collaborative and purposeful. We are always working toward something specific. You will leave most sessions with something concrete, a new way of understanding the loop, a skill to practice, an exposure to try before we meet again.
I will ask you to do work between sessions. The clients who get the most out of this work are the ones who show up curious, complete their homework, and are willing to sit with discomfort in service of something they actually want.
THE ARC OF TREATMENT
01.
Intake and Assessment
We start with a thorough intake to understand your history, your symptoms, and your goals. I send a detailed questionnaire before we meet so we can get into the real work from session one. The intake session is 60 minutes.
02.
Mapping your Loop
In the first two to three sessions, we build a clear picture of your specific OCD and anxiety pattern. Where the loop came from, what keeps it going, and what triggers it.
This phase is also where we lay the educational foundation. Understanding anxiety, OCD, ACT, and ERP is a crucial part of the work. Knowledge helps you see your patterns more clearly and gives you the framework to actually change them.
Symptoms are also normalized and you learn you are not your symptoms.
Education about exposure therapy and practicing response prevention is paramount. You will understand exactly what you are doing and why before I ask you to complete an exposure or use a therapy skill.
You will also learn that you are not your OCD intrusive thoughts. You are not your OCD or your anxiety. You are human and you are more than your symptoms. You will understand exactly what you are doing and why before I ask you to do it.
03.
The Actual Work
This is where the exposure work starts. We build an exposure menu together, starting wherever you are most motivated to work and what matters most to you.
We start with in-session exposures. Once you can use the skills during in-session exposures, we create exposure homework. We will look at what exposures will give you the biggest return and get you back to the activities and the life you want.
If in-session exposure work or homework feels like too much too soon, you did not fail. Everything we do is data, and we use it to individualize therapy and meet you where you are. We will work together to find an exposure that is more approachable.
04.
Generalizing the Skills
Once you are using the skills consistently, we generalize the skills. We apply the skills to new areas of your life, new situations, new goals. This is where clients start discovering who they are outside of their anxiety. I always call this the “dating yourself” portion of therapy.
I want you to date who you are now that OCD and anxiety are not running your life. What do you like to do? Who are you in this stage of your life? What have you always wanted to try but anxiety talked you out of? The outfit you thought you couldn't pull off. The promotion conversation you kept putting off. The solo trip you talked yourself out of. Go do those things. Sometimes dating yourself is not a complete success. Sometimes it is a resounding success. Either way, you will learn something real about yourself. You will surprise yourself. More importantly, you will deepen your relationship with yourself.
05.
Life After the Loop
When you have met your initial therapy goals, we will work together to assess what the best next steps are for you. Some clients step down to biweekly or monthly sessions. Some complete treatment entirely. Some set new goals and keep going. There is no one right answer and no pressure either way.
other ways to work together
Intensive Session
A standalone three-hour intake or in-session exposure appointment with no program commitment required.
Intensive Program
For women who want to make significant progress in a concentrated period of time. A structured, immersive alternative to weekly therapy that condenses months of work into two weeks.
LAURENWEATHERS
IN NEW YORK CITY
For women figuring out who they are beyond their anxiety.