What to Expect in Your First OCD Therapy Session in Austin
Starting ERP with an OCD therapist in Austin can feel like climbing a very tall mountain. it won’t be easy, but I’ve guided a lot of people and I know the way!
Meeting with a therapist for any issue will trigger some nerves, but meeting with an OCD therapist in Austin with the intent to start ERP is especially rattling. You are dealing with thoughts you would never want anybody to know about, you’re scared of what it means that you have these thoughts, and you can’t imagine you won’t be judged when you reveal the content of the thoughts.
I wrote a more comprehensive guide to finding the right OCD therapist in Austin. This post delves into what the first session will look like.
Before You Arrive
I do a free 15-minute phone consultation with everyone before we schedule the first session. This allows us to get a sense of each other and helps you make an informed decision as to whether you want to spend your time and money with me. If you decide you want to work with me, we can then schedule the first session while on the consultation call.
Following our call, you will then receive an email from My Best Practice, which is the electronic health record I use. You’ll complete forms online, and as long as they are completed before the first session, you can complete them at any time. Most of the forms are standard healthcare forms that simply require a signature (e.g., HIPAA, informed consent). One form asks yes/no questions about various mental health symptoms, and one asks questions about your history. Each Sunday morning, I send out my session links for the week. I use Google Meet for our sessions. If you are using a computer, our session is right in the browser. If you’re using a phone or tablet, there is an app to download. I don’t take insurance, and you will pay me directly. I can provide a superbill for you to submit to your insurance for reimbursement.
As an OCD therapist in Austin, I will lay out a clearly lit path for you.
The First 10 Minutes
I will review the form with yes/no questions about different mental health symptoms and follow up on anything you said “yes” to. This helps me understand what (if anything) might be present besides OCD. It’s rare for someone to only have OCD. Frequently, people also have depression, other anxiety disorders, os something else on the OCD spectrum like hair-pulling or skin picking. All of these things have treatments, and if they are in fact present, I would like to offer solutions. You, of course, get to decide if you want to pursue them.
We then move into specifically assessing your OCD.
The Heart of the First Session
I use a tool called the YBOCS (Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale) to assess and diagnose your OCD. It will most likely take more than one session. I take a thorough inventory of obsessions and compulsions, and we start determining where our main focus should be. The YBOCS also has a severity scale that gives me a number. I use this to track progress as we go.
Ending the Session
If we get all the way through the YBOCS, I’ll have you start tracking your obsessions and compulsions. This is another way I measure progress. I’ll be looking for fewer compulsions and less distress around the obsessions.
Common Feelings After Session One
Sometimes people feel relieved to have a better understanding of what’s going on and a clear path to recovery. Sometimes people feel apprehensive about the journey ahead. After all, the word exposure is right there in the title! Another common feeling is uncertainty about whether you’ll be able to tolerate the discomfort you know is coming.
Conclusion
ERP has an astronomical amount of research behind it. The treatment developers knew nobody would be enthused about doing it, so they wanted to make damn sure it worked. And it does! Think about getting your time back. Think about getting your life back!
