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Locating the Proper Therapist to Treat Your Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

It can be a daunting task to locate a therapist that works best for you if you have obsessive-compulsive disorder. To make this task easier for you, here are some questions to ask when interviewing therapists.

The first question to ask is: What is your treatment of choice? The answer you are looking for is: behavioral or cognitive-behavioral or a combo of either one and medication therapy. You may also hear mention of exposure and response prevention therapy or ERP.

Next ask this very important question: Can you teach me how to do ERP? The answer should be yes. It is not beneficial to the patient to be involved in therapist assisted ERP for longer than a few sessions. Therapist-assisted ERP should be combined with self-directed ERP. The patient should be able to do ERP without the assistance of the therapist. This should be done on an individual basis for no two patients will be ready to do ERP on their own at the same pace.

The third question should be: Are you willing to go with the patient to situations or places where OCD triggers take place? The answer again, should be yes. Some patients experience symptoms of OCD and are confined to their home because of them. Some have OCD triggers that take place in grocery stores, or other public places. It may not be possible to find a therapist willing to go to where you are experiencing your OCD symptoms but it is worth it to ask anyways. Don't discount the therapist if the answer is a no to this question; they may still be a valuable therapist.

Next ask how many patients they have treated who have had OCD? If the patient you are finding a therapist for is a child ask how many children they have had as patients?

Ask how they normally begin treatment with a new OCD patient. There should be an assessment conducted that should take two to three sessions to complete. You should be told that there will be a lot of questions to be answered by the patient or if the patient is a child, by the parent. Also you should be told that there would be a Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-Bocs) test administered to the patient.

Since those who suffer from OCD commonly experience depression ask the therapist if she/he is experienced in treating patients who are experiencing symptoms of depression. Ask what therapies she/he recommends for depression.

Ask if the therapist combines other needed therapies after the patient is managing the OCD symptoms such as general psychotherapy, family or marital therapy which are often needed by OCD patients.

If you run across a situation in which there are no qualified therapist who treat OCD in your local area there are two things that you can do. The first thing to do is to purchase or borrow an OCD self-help book and practice-doing ERP exercises yourself. A listing of some of these books can be found on the OCF Website: www.ocfoundation.org

The second thing you can do is to try to get a therapist in your local area to attend a Behavior Therapy Institute (BTIs), which is conducted by the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation. This is a three-day training course for mental health professionals.