You’re not broken, and your thoughts don’t define you. When OCD treatment actually works, you stop spending hours each day battling intrusive thoughts and performing rituals that steal your time and peace.
Real recovery means waking up without that familiar dread. It means touching a doorknob without washing your hands twenty times afterward. It means holding your baby without terrifying thoughts of harm flooding your mind.
With the right treatment approach, you can reclaim the mental space that OCD has occupied. You’ll learn to coexist with uncertainty without it controlling your every move, and you’ll discover what life feels like when your energy goes toward what matters most to you.
The Anxiety and OCD Institute brings together nationally recognized researchers, published clinicians, and advocates—many of whom have lived experience with the very conditions we treat. This combination gives us unique insight into what actually works and what doesn’t.
In Garland, where access to specialized mental health care has been limited, we’re filling a critical gap. Our team understands the specific challenges facing Texas residents, from long wait times to providers who don’t truly understand OCD’s complexities.
We’ve shaped international treatment guidelines and written foundational books in the field, but more importantly, we create authentic partnerships with the people we serve. No judgment, no shame—just evidence-based care delivered by people who truly understand.
Your treatment starts with a comprehensive assessment that goes beyond surface symptoms. We evaluate your specific OCD presentation, whether it’s harm obsessions, contamination fears, symmetry compulsions, or postpartum-related intrusive thoughts.
The core of treatment is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), the gold standard approach that helps you gradually face your fears while resisting the compulsions that keep OCD alive. Unlike traditional talk therapy, ERP directly targets the cycle that maintains your symptoms.
For those who prefer a different approach, we also offer Inference-based CBT (I-CBT), which focuses on resolving the obsessional doubts at their source. Some clients benefit from intensive treatment options that compress months of progress into concentrated timeframes, while others prefer the steady pace of weekly sessions.
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Our treatment approach covers the full spectrum of OCD presentations. Harm OCD therapy addresses those terrifying thoughts about hurting yourself or others—thoughts that feel real but aren’t predictive of your actions. We understand the difference between intrusive thoughts and actual intent.
Postpartum OCD help recognizes that new mothers experiencing disturbing thoughts about their babies aren’t dangerous—they’re experiencing a treatable condition that affects up to 16% of women during the postpartum period. In Garland’s diverse community, we provide culturally sensitive care that respects different backgrounds and belief systems.
For those struggling with symmetry and orderliness compulsions, we help you break free from the exhausting need for everything to be “just right.” ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) techniques complement traditional ERP for those dealing with persistent obsessive thoughts, helping you change your relationship with these mental experiences rather than fighting them.
ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention) therapy is specifically designed for OCD and works completely differently from traditional talk therapy. While regular counseling focuses on discussing your thoughts and feelings, ERP helps you gradually face your fears while learning to resist compulsions.
Research shows that up to 80% of people with OCD see significant improvement with ERP, making it the gold standard treatment. The key difference is that ERP therapists don’t try to convince you that your thoughts are rational or irrational—instead, we help you learn that you don’t need to respond to these thoughts with compulsions.
This behavioral approach directly breaks the OCD cycle, whereas traditional therapy can sometimes make OCD worse by encouraging you to analyze or suppress intrusive thoughts, which often backfires.
Harm OCD involves intrusive, unwanted thoughts about hurting yourself or others that cause extreme distress precisely because they go against your values. People with harm OCD are actually at lower risk of violence than the general population because these thoughts are ego-dystonic—meaning they’re completely opposite to what you want.
The key difference is your reaction to these thoughts. Someone with harm OCD is horrified by violent thoughts and goes to great lengths to avoid acting on them. They might avoid knives, stay away from balconies, or avoid being alone with loved ones—all because they’re desperately trying to prevent harm.
In contrast, someone with genuine violent intent doesn’t experience these thoughts as intrusive or distressing. They don’t seek help to make the thoughts go away. Understanding this difference is crucial for getting appropriate treatment rather than being misunderstood by providers who don’t specialize in OCD.
Most people start seeing meaningful improvement within 8-12 weeks of consistent ERP therapy, though this varies based on symptom severity and how long you’ve been dealing with OCD. Some notice changes in their anxiety levels within the first few sessions, while significant behavioral changes typically emerge over several weeks.
The average person needs 12-20 ERP sessions to achieve substantial improvement, but some benefit from intensive treatment options that compress this timeline. For those dealing with severe OCD or multiple symptom categories, treatment may take longer, but progress is usually steady when you’re working with a qualified specialist.
It’s important to know that improvement isn’t always linear—you might have setbacks along the way, which is completely normal. The key is consistent practice of ERP techniques both in sessions and in your daily life, which helps create lasting changes in how your brain responds to intrusive thoughts.
Yes, postpartum OCD can be effectively treated while breastfeeding, primarily through ERP therapy, which doesn’t require medication. Many new mothers prefer this approach because it allows them to maintain breastfeeding while getting the specialized help they need.
ERP therapy for postpartum OCD focuses on gradually exposing you to situations that trigger intrusive thoughts about your baby while learning to resist safety behaviors and compulsions. This might include holding your baby without excessive checking, being alone with your child, or handling everyday baby care tasks without elaborate rituals.
If medication is needed, there are breastfeeding-compatible options available, and your treatment team can work with your obstetrician to find the safest approach. The most important thing is getting treatment—untreated postpartum OCD can significantly impact bonding with your baby and your overall well-being as a mother.
I-CBT (Inference-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and ERP are both evidence-based treatments for OCD, but they work in different ways. ERP focuses on changing your behavior by gradually facing fears and resisting compulsions, which then leads to changes in thoughts and feelings over time.
I-CBT takes a more cognitive approach, focusing on resolving the obsessional doubts that fuel your OCD. Instead of exposures, I-CBT helps you understand why you get certain doubts and teaches you how to resolve them using reasoning skills. This approach can be particularly helpful if you’re not ready for exposure work or if previous ERP attempts weren’t successful.
Some people respond better to ERP’s direct behavioral approach and see faster results, while others prefer I-CBT’s focus on understanding and resolving the confusion that OCD creates. Your treatment team can help determine which approach might work best for your specific situation, and sometimes elements of both can be combined effectively.
Intensive OCD treatment might be right for you if your symptoms are severely impacting your daily functioning, if weekly therapy hasn’t provided enough progress, or if you need more support than traditional outpatient treatment offers but don’t require inpatient hospitalization.
Signs you might benefit from intensive treatment include: spending several hours daily on compulsions, avoiding major life activities due to OCD, difficulty leaving home because of contamination fears or checking rituals, or if your OCD is preventing you from working, going to school, or maintaining relationships.
Intensive programs typically involve multiple hours of treatment per week, sometimes including in-home sessions where you practice ERP techniques in your actual environment. This can be particularly effective because you’re learning to manage OCD symptoms in the real-world settings where they occur, leading to faster and more lasting improvement than traditional once-weekly therapy sessions.
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