You’ll wake up without the immediate rush of intrusive thoughts demanding your attention. Simple tasks like leaving the house, touching doorknobs, or making decisions won’t trigger hours of mental rituals.
Your relationships improve because you’re present instead of trapped in your head. Work becomes manageable again because you’re not spending half your day battling compulsions.
Most importantly, you’ll trust yourself again. The constant second-guessing fades, replaced by genuine confidence in your ability to handle uncertainty without falling apart.
The Anxiety and OCD Institute isn’t just another therapy practice. Our team includes nationally recognized researchers, published clinicians, and advocates—many with lived experience of the conditions we treat.
William Schultz, our lead therapist, survived ten years of OCD before achieving remission in 2017. He’s the President of OCD Twin Cities and contributed research used by the International OCD Foundation’s treatment guidelines.
In Midland, we understand the unique challenges of accessing specialized care in West Texas. That’s why we offer both secure telehealth and intensive in-person options, ensuring you get expert treatment regardless of your location.
We start by mapping your specific compulsions and the fears driving them. No generic approaches—your treatment plan targets exactly what’s keeping you stuck.
Next, we create a hierarchy of exposures, starting with manageable challenges and gradually working up. You’ll never be surprised or pressured into anything you’re not ready for.
During exposures, we teach you to sit with the discomfort without performing compulsions. This is where the real change happens—you learn that anxiety naturally decreases without rituals.
Between sessions, you’ll practice exposures on your own, building confidence in real-world situations. Research shows that 60-100 exposures combined with response prevention lead to substantial, lasting improvement.
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Our outpatient ERP therapy in Midland, TX adapts to your schedule and needs. Weekly sessions work for many people, but we also offer intensive four-day programs for faster results.
Midland residents often face long drives to access specialized care elsewhere in Texas. Our secure telehealth platform eliminates that barrier, connecting you with expert treatment from home.
For those needing more intensive support, our residential ERP programs provide immersive treatment. Whether you’re stepping down from inpatient care or need more than weekly therapy, we meet you where you are in your recovery journey.
Most people start noticing improvements within 4-6 weeks of consistent ERP therapy. However, significant, lasting change typically requires completing 60-100 exposures combined with response prevention.
The timeline depends heavily on your willingness to practice exposures between sessions. Clients who complete daily at-home exposures see results faster than those who only do exposures during therapy sessions.
Our intensive four-day program can accelerate this timeline significantly. Many participants experience breakthrough moments that would normally take months to achieve in weekly therapy.
Traditional talk therapy often makes OCD worse by encouraging you to analyze and discuss intrusive thoughts. ERP does the opposite—it teaches you to experience the thoughts without engaging with them.
Instead of talking about your fears, ERP has you gradually face them in controlled situations. This hands-on approach retrains your brain’s response to triggers, leading to actual behavioral change.
The gold standard research consistently shows ERP’s superiority over other approaches for OCD. While talk therapy might help you understand your OCD, ERP helps you overcome it.
Absolutely. Our secure telehealth platform serves clients throughout Texas, including Midland. Virtual ERP therapy is just as effective as in-person treatment for most people.
We use specialized online tools that allow us to guide exposures in your actual environment—your home, car, or wherever your OCD symptoms are most active. This real-world practice often leads to better results than office-based exposures.
Our therapists are licensed in Texas and trained specifically in delivering ERP through telehealth. You’ll receive the same expert care whether you’re in our office or connecting from Midland.
ERP will temporarily increase your anxiety—that’s actually how it works. By facing your fears without performing compulsions, you initially feel more anxious until your brain learns the situation isn’t actually dangerous.
Think of it like jumping into a cold pool. It’s uncomfortable at first, but your body adjusts. This process, called habituation, teaches you that you can handle anxiety without rituals.
We never surprise or pressure you into exposures. You’ll understand exactly why each exercise is important and voluntarily choose to do it. The temporary discomfort leads to long-term freedom from OCD’s control.
Yes, we offer intensive four-day ERP programs for people who need more than weekly therapy. These concentrated sessions are ideal if you’re struggling to leave home due to OCD or if traditional outpatient therapy hasn’t provided the breakthrough you need.
Our intensive programs involve 8-hour days focused entirely on understanding what keeps you stuck and developing skills for lasting change. The group format provides additional support and accountability.
These programs aren’t right for everyone—you need to be medically stable and ready to face significant discomfort. But for the right candidates, intensive ERP can create months of progress in just four days.
Residential ERP programs are typically recommended when OCD severely impacts your daily functioning—if you can’t work, maintain relationships, or complete basic self-care due to compulsions consuming most of your day.
You might also benefit from residential care if you’ve tried multiple outpatient treatments without success, have significant co-occurring conditions like depression, or need to step down from inpatient psychiatric care.
The decision isn’t just about symptom severity—it’s about finding the right level of support for your situation. We’ll help you determine whether outpatient, intensive outpatient, or residential care best fits your needs and goals.
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