Therapy in California with Teva Johnstone
I have extensive training, supervision, and consultation in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), which is a Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I practice integrative therapy, meaning therapy is individualized drawing from several theories and approaches. The focus of my practice is OCD and Compulsive or Addictive Behaviors, such as emotional eating and internet addiction.
As an OCD Specialist in Ventura, my training and clinical experience is laser focused on helping people take their lives back from emotionally driven rituals and cravings that often produce tremendous shame and suffering. This specialization allows me to better serve clients with very specific needs who have not been helped by generalist practitioners.
My Teachers
I have had the privilege of training under several expert clinicians in the field of OCD treatment. My teachers include Dr. Eli Felt, Dr. Jonathan Grayson, and Dr. Michael J. Greenberg, founder of Rumination-Focused ERP.
I completed classic ERP training with the Center for Anxiety & Behavior Therapy and take specialized workshops with the International OCD Foundation on a regular basis.
Foundational ERP with Dr. Eli Felt
5 hours of live 1:1 instruction and ongoing case consultation
Gold Standard OCD Treatment with Dr. Jonathan Grayson
6 hours of live group instruction
Intensive Workshop: Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy for OCD with the Center for Anxiety & Behavior Therapy
27 hours of live group instruction and case consultation
IOCDF ERP Supervision and Consultation with Dr. Jonathan Grayson
18 hours of live small group instruction and case consultation
Rumination-Focused ERP with Dr. Michael J. Greenberg
8 hours of live small group instruction and case consultation
Advanced Treatment Protocol for Emetophobia with Dr. David Yusko
4 hours of live small group instruction
Online Faith & OCD Conference with IOCDF
6 hours of live group instruction
Therapy Trainings and Qualifications
License and Education
Licensed Clinical Social Worker CA License No. 103826
Master's of Social Work, Azusa Pacific University
Bachelor’s of Arts, University of California Santa Barbara
Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Conditions
Exposure and Response Prevention for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Various live trainings from Dr. Eli Felt, Dr. Jon Grayson, Dr. Michael J. Greenberg, Center for Anxiety & Behavior Therapy, International OCD Foundation
Integrated Psychodynamic and Behavioral Theory of OCD
Dr. Michael J. Greenberg, Rumination-Focused ERP (RF-ERP)
Advanced Treatment Protocol for Emetophobia
Center for Anxiety & Behavior Therapy, Dr. David Yusko and Dara Lovitz
Demystifying Interoceptive Exposure
Unified Protocol Institute
SPACE FTL for Failure to Launch
Dr. Eli Lebowitz
Introduction to Understanding and Treating OCPD
Anthony Pinto, IOCDF Training Institute
Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders
Postpartum Support International
Therapy for Emotional Eating and Binge Eating Disorder
CBT for Binge Eating Disorder
Beck Institute
Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Binge Eating and Bulimia
Debra L. Safer, Christy F. Telch, and Eunice Y. Chen
Therapy for Compulsive Internet Behavior and Screen Addiction
Technology Addiction and Digital Health Certification
Dr. Nicholas Kardaras
Helping Clients Manage the New Additions: Online Media and Gambling
Dr. Michler Bishop
Internet Addiction: Evaluation and Treatment
Kimberly Young & Cristiano Nabuco de Abreu
Dopamine Fasting & Mindfulness
Dr. Anna Lembke
Clinical Experience with OCD, Compulsive Behavior, and Anxiety Treatment with Teva Johnstone
I work with a variety of obsessive-compulsive themes and compulsive behaviors. While many feel significant embarrassment about the nature of their obsessions, I have worked effectively and sensitively with a variety of presentations and strive to create a trusting therapeutic environment where you feel safe to share what troubles you.
Treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Themes and Addictive Behavior:
Contamination OCD
Compulsive Rumination or “Pure O” OCD
Religious and Moral Scrupulosity OCD
Relationship OCD
Sexual Orientation OCD
Just Right OCD
Harm and POCD
Fear of Going Crazy
Emetophobia or Fear of Vomiting
Social Phobia or Social Anxiety
Emotional and Binge Eating
Internet Addiction: Gambling, Gaming, Social Media, etc.
In Person and Online Therapy in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties
I offer in person therapy at my office in Ventura, California near Ventura College. My office is conveniently located near Ojai, Santa Barbara, Oxnard, Camarillo, Newbury Park, and Thousand Oaks. Online therapy is provided to California residents via secure Zoom. As appropriate, exposure therapy exercises may take place in community settings.
Clinical Experience
I have worked with adults, children, and teens as a social worker and therapist for about a decade in a variety of settings—including LA & Ventura County schools, inpatient psychiatry at Northridge Hospital Dignity Health in Los Angeles, Community Memorial Hospital’s New Parent Resource Center in Ventura, the Nan Tolbert Nurturing Center in Ojai (now Secure Beginnings), Koinonia Family Services in Camarillo, and Parent Child Therapy Clinic in Ventura before opening my own private practice.
Much of my career has focused on Maternal Child Mental Health, with interests in parental stress, parental anxiety, emotional regulation, and promoting secure attachment. I have extensive experience providing treatment to children with Adverse Childhood Experiences. I have advised many parents on caring for children with trauma histories, ASD, ADHD, and provided consulting on parenting children with highly sensitive and “spirited” temperaments.
I have been licensed to practice psychotherapy independently since 2021 and opened my practice the same year. I have provided mental health treatment to California residents since graduate school internships in 2011, and began specializing in the obsessive-compulsive spectrum in 2024 due to my personal and clinical interests in the topic and desire to practice more active forms of psychotherapy, such as exposure-based therapy.
Advancing the Profession
From 2023-2025 I mentored early career therapists and provided contracted BBS clinical supervision to Associates in Ventura, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles Counties. I loved supervising child therapists and stepped back from the role to focus on my own growing private practice.
In 2021 I held a volunteer Child, Adolescents & Young Adults committee position with the National Association of Social Workers and was selected as a Delegate for the NASW-CA Chapter.