Anxiety & OCD Therapy
Anxiety and OCD are exhausting. You've probably tried pushing through, rationalizing, or avoiding, and found that none of it lasts. The relief wears off, and the worry comes back louder.
My foundation for both is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Instead of teaching you better ways to argue with anxious thoughts, ACT changes your relationship with them so they stop running your behavior. For OCD, I fuse ACT with Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), the treatment with the strongest track record for breaking the obsession-compulsion cycle.
What this can look like
- Intrusive thoughts you'd never say out loud, and a mind that keeps checking whether they mean something
- Reassurance loops: Googling symptoms, re-asking your partner, re-reading the email you already sent
- Checking, counting, redoing, or mental rituals that eat up more of your day than anyone realizes
- Performance anxiety before presentations, procedures, depositions, or launches
- Perfectionism that stalls projects because "good enough" feels dangerous
- Panic that shows up out of nowhere, and a growing list of situations you avoid so it won't
How I treat it
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
This is the core of how I work with anxiety. Anxiety survives on the fight you have with it: the suppressing, the analyzing, the avoiding. ACT drops the fight. You learn to make room for anxious thoughts and feelings without obeying them, get clear on what actually matters to you, and start moving toward it with the anxiety along for the ride.
ACT has been evaluated in over 500 randomized controlled trials, with strong evidence across anxiety disorders, OCD, and burnout. It also gives you something most anxiety treatment skips: a direction, not just symptom relief.
Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP), for OCD
ERP is the gold-standard behavioral treatment for OCD, and I deliver it fused with ACT. We build a plan to face the thoughts and situations that trigger you, on purpose and at a pace you choose, while dropping the rituals and reassurance that keep the cycle alive.
The ACT frame is what makes it stick: you're not doing exposures to prove the fear wrong, you're practicing living your life with uncertainty there.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
For panic, generalized worry, and the thinking traps that fuel them, I draw on CBT to identify the patterns and test them against reality. In practice, most of my anxiety work blends ACT and CBT rather than picking one.
What working together looks like
We start with a thorough intake so I understand how anxiety actually operates in your life, then build a clear plan with goals you can measure. Values work comes early: it's what keeps treatment pointed at your life instead of just your symptoms. If exposure work is part of your plan, it's collaborative. You'll never be thrown into anything, and you'll always know why we're doing what we're doing.
Everything happens over secure telehealth. Video-delivered ACT and ERP both have solid research behind them, and doing exposures in your real environment (your home, your office) is often an advantage over a therapy room.
From the blog
Common questions
Do I need a diagnosis before reaching out?
No. Plenty of people come in saying "I don't know if this is OCD or just anxiety." Sorting that out is part of the intake, and treatment is tailored to what we actually find, not to a label.
Will you just tell me my fears are irrational?
No, because you already know that, and knowing hasn't helped. OCD and anxiety don't respond to logic; they respond to changing what you do with the thoughts. That's exactly what ACT is built for, and what ERP adds for OCD.
How long does treatment take?
It depends on severity and how much practice happens between sessions. ERP for OCD often shows meaningful movement within the first couple of months. We set concrete goals early and track progress against them, so you'll know whether it's working.
Does ERP work over telehealth?
Yes. Video-delivered ERP is well supported by research, and exposures done in your real environment, your home or your office, are often more useful than ones done in a therapy office.
Do you prescribe medication?
No. As a psychologist I provide therapy, not prescriptions. If medication is part of your picture, I'm glad to coordinate with your psychiatrist or primary care doctor so the two treatments work together.
Anxiety responds to the right treatment
If you've been white-knuckling it, there's a better option. I offer a free, confidential 15-minute intro call to see if we're a good fit. Telehealth across 40+ states, in English or Spanish.
Written by Dr. Olivier van Hauwermeiren, PsyD. Licensed Clinical Psychologist, NY & WI, PSYPACT