Telehealth Treatment for Hairpulling: As Effective as In-Person Treatment
In Portland, Oregon, where I live, potential therapy clients have access to wide range of therapists who use evidence-based practices.
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The Importance of Acceptance in Dealing with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
People with OCD are often plagued with a wide variety of painful thoughts. These include horrible images, worries they might harm themselves or others, or beliefs that they are condemned altogether. It’s natural…
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People with OCD Prefer Exposure to Alternative Treatments
Mad in America published a summary of a recent study that surveyed people with OCD about treatment preferences. I spent the last hour trying to track down a copy of the actual research…
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The Importance of Treating OCD Earlier: The Washington Post Article on Ethan’s Struggle from Childhood OCD through Adulthood
In people who develop obsessive-compulsive disorder, there are often signs in childhood. However, OCD in children can be hard to distinguish from childhood fears and age-appropriate magical thinking. For OCD Awareness Week, The…
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Self-Help for Anxiety in an International Sample
Since I saw him present on some preliminary results at a conference 6 years ago, I’ve been following with interest University of Albany – SUNY professor John Forsyth’s, PhD, research on his self-help…
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Article: My Secret Life as a Skin Picker
One of the problems I specialize in working with is repetitive skin picking (also known as excoriation or dermatillomania). People struggling with this problem experience intense urges to pick at blemishes or perceived…
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Evaluating Self Help: The Mindfulness & Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety
There’s no shortage of self-help books on the market. There is, however, a paucity of research on whether those self-help books are actually helpful to the people who use them. In an ideal…
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The Difficulties of Accessing Effective Treatment: OCD as an Example
I resonated with a recent article in Psychology Today about the difficulties people have in finding therapists who offer effective treatment. The authors Dean McKay and Scott Lilienfeld—especially Dr. Lilienfeld—have been extremely active…
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A Brief Video about OCD
I ran across this excellent 5 minute video on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) by Helen Blair Simpson, MD, PhD through the Mental Health Channel. Dr. Simpson is a professor at Columbia University and director…
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Huffington Post Article on Hair Pulling and Skin Picking
One of my specialties is working with people who struggle with repetitive hair pulling (called trichotillomania) and/or skin picking (called dermatillomania or excoriation). Individuals with these conditions often do damage to their appearance….
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Hair Pulling (AKA Trichotillomania) and Skin Picking Problems – Greater Research Support for Behavior Therapy over Medication
Trichotillomania (or trich for short) is a condition in which people repeatedly pull out their body hair, often leading to bald patches and thinning. The scalp is a common site—as are eyebrows and…
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CNN Article on Religious-Themed OCD (aka Scrupulosity)
CNN featured a nice article on a lesser known subtype of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)–Scrupulosity. This involves religious-themed obsessions, such as fear of blaspheming, fear of going to hell, or a sense that you…
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A Yale Graduate Student’s Account of Her Struggle to Find Effective Treatment for OCD
At Portland Psychotherapy, we are passionate about offering evidence-based treatment and promoting training in effective treatments to other professionals. I recently came across this opinion piece by a Yale graduate student recounting her…
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What Medications are Effective in OCD?
In previous posts, I’ve written about how cognitive behavioral treatment (specifically, CBT with exposure and response prevention) has been shown to be much more effective in treating obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) than medication….
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Psychotherapy Changes the Brain, Too: A Look at PTSD Treatment
It has become fashionable nowadays in psychotherapy circles to talk about neuroscience and interventions that target the brain. Some writers refer to this bias as “neurocentrism,” the notion that our behavior is best…
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Your Mind Thinks its an Expert (or Calling Dr. Rutherford)
You’ve probably noticed this already, but our minds have something to say on most topics. Some of this is pretty minor: “That iced tea looks refreshing!” In other cases our minds dole out…
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Are Antipsychotic Medications a Helpful Adjunct for Treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?
Among people with whom I work, a practice that’s grown more common in the last few years but with iffy research support is the addition of an antipsychotic medication when an antidepressant medication…
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Psychotherapy vs. Medication for OCD – Which is More Effective?
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a serious and disabling problem for many people. Understandably, many people seek out medication to help with this problem, and research is shown that medication can be helpful some…