You’ll spend less time fighting intrusive thoughts and more time living your life. Our specialized approach helps you face fears without performing compulsions, breaking the cycle that’s been controlling your days.
Instead of avoiding situations that trigger your OCD, you’ll learn to navigate them with confidence. The constant mental noise quiets down, relationships improve, and daily tasks become manageable again.
Most clients see meaningful progress within weeks, not years. You’re not looking for a lifetime of therapy—you want your life back, and that’s exactly what our evidence-based approach delivers.
The Anxiety and OCD Institute brings together nationally recognized researchers, published clinicians, and advocates—many with lived experience of the very conditions we treat. This combination gives you something rare: true understanding alongside clinical authority.
Austin’s mental health landscape is competitive, but few practices offer the specialized depth needed for effective OCD treatment. Our team includes clinicians who have shaped international OCD treatment guidelines and written foundational books for the field.
We serve children, adolescents, and adults throughout Austin with both virtual and in-person appointments. Complete transparency about processes and fees means no surprises—just clear, effective treatment designed to help you thrive, not just manage symptoms.
Treatment starts with understanding your specific OCD patterns—whether that’s harm obsessions, contamination fears, symmetry concerns, or postpartum intrusive thoughts. No thought is too taboo or disturbing to discuss safely.
You’ll work with specialists trained in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), the gold standard for OCD treatment. This isn’t general talk therapy—it’s targeted intervention that helps you gradually face fears while resisting compulsive responses.
The process includes both individual sessions and, when appropriate, intensive treatment options including our unique four-day program. You’ll learn to manage obsessions when they occur and engage more fully in life, with ongoing support throughout your recovery journey.
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Treatment includes specialized approaches like Inference-based CBT (I-CBT) for OCD, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for obsessive thoughts, and targeted interventions for specific concerns like postpartum OCD or symmetry obsessions.
Austin residents benefit from both virtual and in-person treatment options, making specialized care accessible regardless of location or schedule constraints. The city’s strong mental health infrastructure supports comprehensive treatment, but finding providers with true OCD expertise remains crucial.
Our services extend beyond individual therapy to include family support, intensive treatment programs, and ongoing research collaboration. This ensures you receive not just current best practices, but cutting-edge approaches as the field advances.
OCD requires specialized treatment that general anxiety therapy can’t provide. While anxiety therapy often focuses on challenging negative thoughts or examining evidence, these approaches actually make OCD worse.
OCD treatment uses Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), which helps you gradually face feared situations while preventing compulsive responses. This is the opposite of reassurance-seeking or thought-challenging that other therapies might use.
The difference is crucial—using the wrong approach can strengthen OCD symptoms rather than reduce them. That’s why working with a therapist specifically trained in OCD treatment makes all the difference in your recovery.
We treat all forms of OCD, including harm obsessions, contamination fears, symmetry and orderliness concerns, postpartum OCD, and checking compulsions. Many clients worry their specific thoughts are “too disturbing” to discuss, but no obsession is too taboo.
Harm OCD involves intrusive thoughts about potentially hurting yourself or others, despite having no desire to do so. Postpartum OCD affects new parents with unwanted thoughts about their baby’s safety. Symmetry OCD creates distress when things don’t feel “just right.”
Each type requires tailored approaches within the ERP framework. Our team’s extensive experience means we understand the nuances of different OCD presentations and can adapt treatment accordingly.
Most clients see meaningful progress within 4-12 weeks of consistent ERP sessions, though everyone’s timeline varies based on symptom severity and treatment consistency. Complex cases or long-standing OCD may require 3-6 months to build lasting resilience.
We also offer intensive treatment options, including our unique four-day program that can accelerate progress for appropriate candidates. This intensive approach can be particularly helpful for severe symptoms or when travel from outside Austin makes weekly sessions challenging.
Treatment isn’t about lifelong management—it’s about giving you tools to engage fully in life. Many clients continue with occasional check-ins after completing intensive treatment, but the goal is always independence from symptoms, not dependence on therapy.
Yes, virtual OCD treatment is available and can be just as effective as in-person sessions. This is particularly important for Austin residents who may struggle with transportation due to their OCD symptoms or have busy schedules that make office visits challenging.
Virtual ERP can actually offer unique advantages—you can practice exposures in your natural environment, which often makes the treatment more relevant to daily life. Our team ensures you have everything needed for effective virtual treatment, including proper setup for exposure exercises.
Many Austin clients prefer the flexibility of virtual sessions, especially during initial treatment phases when symptoms might make leaving home difficult. The choice between virtual and in-person treatment is always yours, and you can switch between formats as needed.
We combine clinical authority with deep empathy through a team that includes nationally recognized researchers, published clinicians, and advocates with lived experience. Many of our team members have shaped international OCD treatment guidelines and written foundational books for the field.
This isn’t a general practice that treats OCD among many other conditions—we’re a specialized institute focused exclusively on anxiety and OCD. Our team stays current with cutting-edge research and offers innovative options like intensive four-day treatment that most Austin providers don’t provide.
Complete transparency about processes and fees means no surprises, and our commitment to reducing stigma creates a safe space where no thought is considered too disturbing to discuss. This combination of expertise, innovation, and understanding sets us apart in Austin’s competitive mental health landscape.
OCD involves specific patterns that distinguish it from general anxiety. Anxiety typically involves worries about realistic concerns that start at moderate levels and can escalate. OCD obsessions hit immediately at high distress levels and often involve highly unlikely or impossible scenarios.
If you spend more than an hour daily on repetitive behaviors or mental rituals, avoid situations due to intrusive thoughts, or feel compelled to perform specific actions to prevent feared outcomes, you likely need specialized OCD treatment rather than general anxiety therapy.
The key difference is that OCD creates a cycle where attempts to reduce anxiety through compulsions actually strengthen the obsessions over time. This is why general anxiety techniques often backfire with OCD, making specialized treatment essential for real progress.
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