Workshop Description:
Treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) challenges many therapists’ usual way of approaching clients. Not only does talk therapy generally not work to alleviate or reduce symptoms of anxiety or ritualized repetitive behavior, but it can even increase them.
In this workshop, we’ll explore Exposure/Response Prevention (Ex/RP), a model that’s been shown to be highly effective. We’ll discuss the neurobiology of OCD, review the differences and connections between obsessions and compulsions, and demonstrate how to assess the severity of a case.
You’ll learn how to lead your clients through the exposure process using Ex/RP in a way that allows them to endure the momentary anxiety of not doing the ritual repetitive behavior and, when catastrophe doesn’t result, helps them to restructure their thinking and begin to free themselves of their symptoms.
Learning Objectives:
1. To understand the etiology, neurobiology of OCD
2. To understand differential diagnoses
3. To be able to fully assess OCD and its symptoms using the Yale Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (YBOCS)
4. To learn how to use Exposure/Response Prevention to treat OCD
5. To be able to do a treatment plan for OCD
6. To understand imaginal exposure to treat phobias