Female OCD Specialist with curly dark hair and a bright smile sitting in therapy office with black top and rust skirt.

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 OCD and Specific Phobias. The focus of my practice is OCD and Related Anxiety Disorders.

As an OCD specialist in Ventura, my training and clinical experience is laser focused on OCD and related conditions of compulsive behavior like internet addiction. This specialization allows me to better serve sufferers 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 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 ongoing consultation

  • IOCDF ERP Supervision and Consultation with Dr. Jonathan Grayson

    18 hours of live small group instruction

  • Rumination-Focused ERP with Dr. Michael J. Greenberg

    8 hours of live small group instruction

  • 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

Sunset over rugged coastline with cliffs, sandy beach, and ocean waves.

Clinical Experience with OCD and Anxiety Treatment with Teva Johnstone

I work with a variety of OCD themes and anxiety presentations. I treat individual sufferers and support their families in an educational manner.

Treatment for OCD Themes & Related Conditions:

  • Contamination OCD

  • Compulsive Rumination or “Pure O” OCD

  • Religious and Moral Scrupulosity OCD

  • Relationship OCD

  • Sexual Orientation OCD

  • Just Right OCD

  • Harm and POCD

  • Health Anxiety

  • Performance and High Achieving Anxiety

  • Emetophobia or Fear of Vomiting

  • Social Phobia or Social Anxiety

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 in Los Angeles, Community Memorial Hospital’s New Parent Resource Center in Ventura, the Nan Tolbert Nurturing Center in Ojai (now Secure Beginnings), Koinonia Foster Care in Camarillo, and Parent Child Therapy Clinic in Ventura before opening my own private practice.

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 interest in the topic and desire to practice more active forms of psychotherapy, such as exposure therapy.

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.

Today I counsel parents on a variety of concerns, including child & teen anxiety, opting out of a phone-based childhood, and strategies to promote independence or “launching” into young adulthood. I use SPACE and Independence Therapy to help parents mitigate risks of Highly Dependent Adult Children or “failure to launch.” I offer consulting to parents with specific questions and concerns.

Although much of my experience has been with women and children, I enjoy working with men and fathers and see many in my clinical practice.

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.

Professional Affiliations

  • International OCD Foundation

  • Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies

  • Postpartum Support International

Therapy Trainings and Qualifications

License and Education

  • Licensed Clinical Social Worker CA 103826

  • Master's of Social Work, Azusa Pacific University

  • Bachelor’s of Arts, University of California Santa Barbara

Mental Health and Psychotherapy

  • 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

  • Developmental 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

  • Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)

    Level 1 University of Iowa

Compulsive Internet Behavior and Screen Addiction

  • Technology Addiction and Digital Health Certification

    Dr. Nicholas Kardaras

  • Helping Clients Manage the New Additions: Online Media, Porn and Gambling

    Dr. Michler Bishop

  • Internet Addiction: Evaluation and Treatment

    Kimberly Young & Cristiano Nabuco de Abreu

  • Dopamine Fasting

    Dr. Anna Lembke

Children’s Mental Health

  • SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions)

    Dr. Eli Lebowitz, Yale Child Center

  • Independence Therapy

    Dr. Camilo Ortiz, Cognitive Behavioral Associates

  • Attachment-Based Family Therapy

    AFBT International

  • Sensory Motor Arousal Regulation Treatment (SMART)

    SMART Moves LLC

  • Certified DIR Floortime Practitioner

    Level 1 ICDL

  • Advanced Trauma Treatment for Children and Adolescents

    PESI