Start Healing with Effective Therapy for OCD & Anxiety
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE)
In Person and Online Therapy in California
SANTA BARBARA | VENTURA | LOS ANGELES
Welcome — I’m Teva. I help people reclaim their lives from OCD, stress, and anxiety. I’m so glad you landed here.
I treat people suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, stress, anxiety, and conditions of compulsive behavior, including body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB), and internet addiction. Many of my clients are located in Ventura County from Ventura, Camarillo, Riverpark, Thousand Oaks, and Ojai. I provide services in person or via Telehealth and see clients for online therapy from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara to San Francisco.
I can assist your recovery from time consuming habits, rituals, rumination, and avoidance. Together we will explore your particular troubles, collaborate on a plan for recovery, and take the concrete steps towards healing.
It’s okay if you’ve had mental health struggles for as long as you can remember—the next chapter is starting now. If you're searching for an OCD specialist in Ventura or Santa Barbara County--or anywhere in California--I’d be happy to support your recovery. Contact me to get started on your healing journey.
Teva Johnstone, Licensed Clinical Social Worker No.103826
Motivation to heal
I wonder if you’re exploring therapy because you realize your current methods—while well intentioned—only temporarily ease the discomfort. Perhaps you wonder if avoidance is really helping because after all this time, the obsessions and fears have only grown. Maybe you’re curious about what life would be like without distressing anxiety or OCD? Whether you're located Ventura County, or anywhere in California, I can help you with your compulsive behavior and anxious distress.
If you’re here because you’re considering a different way to manage urges and fears, you’ve already taken one step towards healing. If you’re beginning to accept your old ways aren’t serving you, this shift in perspective is the foundation of what’s to come…
Therapy tools I use to help
As a licensed therapist with specialized training in the treatment of OCD, compulsive tech use, trichotillomania (hair pulling), excoriation disorder (skin picking), and anxiety disorders, I provide compassionate and evidence-based therapy guided by your goals.
My approach integrates highly effective Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) combined with Motivational Interviewing and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) techniques. ERP is a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that is structured yet personalized and flexible. Treatment planning is collaborative and rooted in your unique needs, cultural values, and ideas about meaning and purpose.
Start the healing process with evidence-based therapy
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Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition characterized by persistent, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors or mental acts (compulsions) that sufferers feel compelled to perform. Obsessions can cause anxious distress, and time consuming rituals and avoidance. Compulsions are often attempts to alleviate the anxiety generated by the obsessions or to prevent a feared outcome. Ultimately compulsive rituals and avoidance reinforce the cycle of OCD. ERP treatment builds courage, resilience, and helps you develop a different relationship with uncertainty. It’s possible to find freedom and learn to hold your fears with flexibility and gentleness. I can help.
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Anxiety Disorders & Specific Phobias
Anxiety disorders and specific phobias are mental health conditions that can significantly impact your quality of life. Anxiety disorders include a range of conditions, including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and specific phobias. These disorders look like excessive fear or worry that is disproportionate to the actual threat posed by the situation. People with anxiety disorders may spend a significant about of time ruminating about their worries. Effective treatment for anxiety disorders and specific phobias includes evidence-based therapeutic approaches like Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
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SPACE for Child Anxiety & OCD
You can support your child’s tendency for extreme worry, avoidance, and compulsive behavior with family-centered evidence-based therapy. I treat anxiety and OCD in children and teens using the SPACE Program (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and ERP (Exposure and Response/Ritual Prevention), a form of CBT. The approaches I use are compassionate and empowering. As a parent myself, I know you need high quality treatment with evidence that it actually works.
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Body-Focused Repetitive Behavior (BFRB)
Body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) are conditions characterized by a strong urge to compulsively pull your hair (trichotillomania), pick your skin (excoriation disorder), and bite your nails. These behaviors can serve as coping mechanisms for anxiety, stress, or boredom, and can lead to emotional distress and medical issues like infection. You may feel a lack of control over BFRB, which can result in shame and social problems. Evidence-based treatment options include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and Habit Reversal Training (HRT). Effective treatment can help you understand and manage your behavior, leading to healthier coping strategies and improved quality of life.
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Technology-Focused Compulsive Behavior (Internet Addiction)
Mental health treatment is available for compulsive use of your smartphone, social media, online gaming, online gambling, online shopping, and other forms of obsessive-compulsive digital behavior that concern you. If you want to reverse your virtual habits, therapy can help you achieve concrete behavioral change while simultaneously addressing the underlying issues that may accompany your compulsive use. If you feel addicted to your phone, it is possible to take your life back. If you’re tired of hacks that don’t work in the longterm, reach out for help from a therapist who has a deep understanding of the issue and can help you break free.
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Parenting Anxiety and Chronic Stress
Parenting can be one of the most rewarding experiences in life, but it can also bring significant stress and anxiety. Many parents face overwhelming pressures where they are often being pulled in numerous directions. Intense stress can occur managing work and addressing the unique needs of children. This stress can lead to feelings of anxiety, depression, isolation, and burnout. Therapy can help you reduce the overwhelm and help you thrive despite the stressors of life and modern parenting.
“I urge you to find a way to immerse yourself fully in the life that you’ve been given. To stop running from whatever you’re trying to escape, and instead to stop, and turn, and face whatever it is. Then I dare you to walk toward it.”
— Anna Lembke, MD
My therapy style
With over a decade of experience as a therapist, my style is warm, direct, and forward moving. When using structured therapies like ERP, I maintain a relational approach and I tailor treatment for your individual needs.
My clients say they feel safe to share things that are embarrassing, scary, or taboo. They feel validated in their pain but they don’t wish to stay in that space. Many clients have come to me specifically requesting to be challenged, with the understanding therapy is about change and resilience.
While in treatment with me, clients are supported as they do the hard work of breaking free from compulsive behavior and anxious avoidance.
Clinical conditions I work with
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Social Anxiety
Generalized Anxiety
Stress and Burnout
Postpartum & Parenting Anxiety
Hoarding Disorder
Trichotillomania (hair pulling) & Excoriation Disorder (skin picking)
Tech-Focused Compulsive Behavior (internet addiction)
Take the first step in recovery
From experience, I know it can be hard to imagine recovery when you’ve been stuck in obsessive compulsive patterns for a while. It’s important to know you aren’t alone and highly effective treatment is available.
OCD and anxiety treatment is a learning process—one in which we learn to live with uncertainty, we learn we can face things that challenge us, and we learn we have agency. Recovery isn’t easy, but it’s worth it.
