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’ or ‘Biopsychosocial Assessment,’ is an hour and takes place 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 therapy. The diagnostic evaluation may require several sessions and our active therapy follows this stage.

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, 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 the Therapy Frame

If you completed any formal measures or a written intake 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 therapeutic frame. These include practice policies, scheduling and payment logistics, communication methods, confidentiality, and more. 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 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.

Eager to Dive Into 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 as soon as possible, but we do need to lay the groundwork for success with assessment and treatment planning first. Approaching Exposure and Response Prevention with this type of intention will help set you up for the best chance at reaching your therapy goals.