Ventura & Online Therapy in California

What to Expect In the First Therapy Session for Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders

Getting Started With Treatment

The first appointment, also called the ‘intake session’ is about one hour held in person at my Ventura office or via secure Zoom anywhere in California.

Our first meeting is part of a diagnostic evaluation process that helps create the foundation for beginning treatment. The evaluation stage of treatment may require several sessions and active psychotherapy follows a thorough assessment of the problem.

Opening Up In Therapy

The first session is a chance to share about your obsessive-compulsive and anxiety symptoms, your history with therapy, your strengths, challenges, childhood adversity, social relationships, and goals for recovery. This may feel vulnerable as you are sharing sensitive or potentially painful information. I will hold your story with respect and care.

Creating Safety

If you completed any formal measures or a written interview prior to the intake session, we will discuss your responses in our first appointment. We will also discuss aspects of how we will work together that create a safe environment or what therapists call the “therapeutic frame.” The therapy frame is the container that allows for deep and honest exploration in the context of a professional setting. It includes practice policies, scheduling and payment logistics, communication guidelines, confidentiality, and a predictable idea of what to expect in our work together. I will answer any questions you may have about how I approach OCD, specific phobias, stress, and anxiety treatment.

Our Working Alliance

Research states our fit, or working relationship, plays a major role in your recovery. When we have a shared understanding of the issue, an agreement on the methods to treat the issue, and an attachment-based alliance to tackle the issue, we are ready to begin treatment. Goodness of fit and building a strong foundation at the beginning of treatment is essential.

Exposure-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

If you have suffered for a long time before receiving an accurate diagnosis or waited forever to gain access to appropriate treatment, it is understandable if you are eager to jump right into exposure therapy. Exposure-based CBT is energizing because it helps you begin to rewrite your narrative and change your relationship with anxiety. Many people feel more capable and more free once they begin confronting what they previously avoided out of fear.

We will begin the active phase of exposure therapy after we lay the groundwork with a proper assessment and collaborative treatment planning. Approaching Exposure and Response Prevention with this type of intention will help set you up for the best chance at reaching your therapy goals.