OCD Therapy Using i-CBT

You Know the Thought Isn't Real. But You Can't Stop Responding to It Anyway.

Specialized i-CBT treatment for OCD and intrusive thoughts, for adults who are exhausted by the cycle.

Schedule a free 15-min call
Schedule a free 15-min call

OCD is not what most people picture.

Most people associate OCD with needing things to be neat, checking the stove or washing your hands over and over. But OCD is far broader than that, and for many people, far more private.

OCD involves intrusive, unwanted thoughts, images, or urges (obsessions) that feel deeply distressing and that trigger intense anxiety. To manage that anxiety, you engage in mental or physical rituals (compulsions): checking, reassurance-seeking, mental reviewing, neutralizing, or avoidance. The relief is temporary. The thoughts come back, often stronger. And the cycle continues.

Maybe your OCD involves fear of harming someone you love, even though you never would. Maybe it involves unwanted thoughts about religion, relationships, identity, or contamination. Maybe the rituals happen entirely in your head, invisible to everyone around you. Whatever form it takes, living with OCD is exhausting, and it can quietly shrink your world over time.

The good news: OCD responds very well to the right treatment. You don't have to keep negotiating with your own mind.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Here's what many clients describe when they first reach out:

  • Recurring intrusive thoughts, images, or urges that feel distressing and completely out of character

  • Spending significant time on mental or physical rituals to reduce anxiety, even when you know they are not really helping

  • Seeking reassurance from others repeatedly and finding that it only works for a short while

  • Avoiding certain people, places, or situations because of what they might trigger

  • A sense of shame or secrecy around what you're experiencing, because it doesn't match who you know yourself to be

  • The time and energy spent on OCD regularly interfering with your work, relationships, or sense of peace

OCD often coexists with anxiety and depression, and it is frequently present in people who appear completely put-together on the outside. If any of this sounds familiar, you're in the right place.

What OCD treatment with i-CBT looks like

I-CBT works by targeting the beliefs and interpretations that give intrusive thoughts their power. Rather than trying to stop or suppress the thoughts (which tends to make them louder), i-CBT helps you change your relationship to them entirely, so they stop triggering the same level of distress and urgency. The focus is on shifting how you appraise and relate to intrusive thoughts, not on directly confronting feared situations.

In our work together, we will:

  • Map your specific OCD pattern: the thoughts triggering distress, the compulsions or avoidance behaviors maintaining the cycle, and the beliefs underneath

  • Understand how OCD works: psychoeducation is genuinely powerful here. Understanding the mechanics of the cycle changes how you experience it

  • Do the cognitive work: examining and shifting the appraisals and beliefs that transform intrusive thoughts into urgent threats

  • Rebuild your sense of self: strengthening your identity and values so that intrusive thoughts have less and less ground to take hold

  • Build skills that last: so that when intrusive thoughts arise in the future, you have a real toolkit for responding differently

I am also trained in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), a separate evidence-based treatment for OCD. For some clients, ERP is the better fit, or a combination of approaches makes the most sense. We will talk through your specific presentation, your history with treatment if you have one, and what approach is most likely to work well for you. There is no one-size-fits-all protocol here.

You've been managing this alone long enough.

A free 15-minute phone or video consultation is just a conversation. No commitment, no pressure. Let's talk about what you're experiencing and see whether working together is the right fit.

I currently offer telehealth sessions for adults in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Connecticut, Illinois, New Hampshire, and North Dakota.

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  • OCD takes many forms, and most of them don't involve cleanliness or organization. If you experience intrusive thoughts that cause significant distress and find yourself doing things, mentally or physically, to manage that distress, that pattern is worth exploring. You don't need to arrive with a diagnosis. We can figure out what is going on together.

  • Yes, and this is one of the most important things I want you to hear. Intrusive thoughts in OCD are ego-dystonic, meaning they feel completely contrary to who you are and what you value. The distress they cause is actually evidence that they conflict with your character, not that they reflect it. This is a space where you can be fully honest about what is happening in your head, without judgment.

  • Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) is a specialized approach developed specifically for OCD. Where standard CBT focuses broadly on thought patterns and behaviors, i-CBT focuses specifically on the appraisals and beliefs that make intrusive thoughts feel threatening and urgent. Rather than confronting feared situations directly, I-CBT works at the level of how you relate to and interpret intrusive thoughts in the first place. It is one of the most effective treatment approaches available for OCD, and it is my primary framework when working with OCD clients.

  • Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is a separate evidence-based treatment for OCD that involves gradually facing feared situations or triggers without engaging in compulsions, allowing your nervous system to learn that it can tolerate uncertainty. I am trained in ERP and offer it as an option for clients for whom it is the better fit, or where a combination of I-CBT and ERP makes clinical sense. We will talk through your specific situation together and figure out which approach is most likely to work well for you.

  • Not necessarily, and this is one of the things that makes I-CBT a useful option. I-CBT works primarily through cognitive and identity-based work rather than direct exposure. That said, ERP remains a well-researched and effective approach, and I am trained in it. For some clients it is the right tool. For others, I-CBT is a better fit. We will make that decision together based on your specific presentation and what you are comfortable with.

  • Yes. You don't have to be in crisis to deserve support. OCD is often most present in people who appear completely functional on the outside, people who have gotten very good at managing around it quietly. The fact that you're coping doesn't mean the burden isn't real. It means you've been working very hard, for a long time. That's exactly what therapy is designed to help with.

  • Most clients start with weekly sessions, but that’s up to you. Because we work entirely via telehealth, there's no commute. You can log in from wherever you are in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Connecticut, Illinois, New Hampshire, or North Dakota.

Things people ask before reaching out

OCD Therapy - Brooklyn, NY

Telehealth · NY · NJ · FL · CT · IL · ND · NH

26 Court Street, Suite 1001, Brooklyn, NY 11242