Parenting Kids & Teens with OCD: Don’t Feed the Reassurance Monster…and Other Quick Tips
Many excellent parents struggle with how to appropriately parent their child/teen with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Unfortunately, this process is rarely straightforward and is often counter-intuitive, which leaves many parents feeling anxious and confused. As a psychologist in Palm Beach County, Florida, I work closely with kids, teens, and parents throughout the greater Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami areas on strategies for recovering from OCD. I also run a free support group for kids/teens with OCD. Consider the following set of ground rules for parenting your child with OCD. The strategies you adopt as a parent can mean the difference between reducing your child’s symptoms or giving these symptoms room to grow. 1. Remind yourself that OCD is based on emotion rather than logic. Many parents get tripped up and frustrated by the many illogical forms that OCD takes....
Read More
Trichotillomania: Goodbye “Trich Police”, Hello HRT
Imagine that you have a rather large blemish right in the middle of your forehead. It’s not one of those pseudo-invisible blemishes that can only be perceived by you. Rather, it’s an angry, red mark that is readily apparent to nearly all the people with whom you interact throughout the day. Most people are polite enough and don’t acknowledge it out loud, although you can sometimes feel their lingering gazes. Others are less discrete, and you’re forced to have a short conversation about it. Neither situation is welcome; in fact, you’re beginning to wish that you had just stayed at home. Now imagine that multiple times throughout the day, a well-meaning person gives you advice on skin care. At first maybe this advice is welcome, and you might even be exposed to some new ideas that you wouldn’t have...
Read More
Hoarding: Treatment, symptoms, and personal impact/costs
The topic of hoarding is rarely met with disinterest. Maybe that’s because nearly all of us can relate to hoarding on one level or another. Perhaps you yourself have been touched personally by hoarding. You may have a strong emotional attachment to objects, or you may have a loved one who inexplicably continues to add to an already existing surplus of items. This surplus may be small, or it may be quickly exhausting all remaining living space. Perhaps you don’t have issues with surplus, but you consider yourself a “pack rat” or a “collector”. Maybe you have a nice collection of art or knickknacks, and you can relate to the urge to over-acquire. Perhaps you are “organizationally challenged” and have struggled with how to best categorize and store your possessions. Maybe you have difficulties with throwing out your newspapers before...
Read More
Hoarding treatment: Choosing the right therapist
If you are an individual who struggles with hoarding, you might have been frustrated by negative treatment experiences in the past. For most individuals who hoard, treatment can be challenging. However, it is an essential ingredient for regaining control and reclaiming your life. When selecting a therapist to help you address your hoarding, make sure that your potential therapist practices cognitive behavioral therapy for hoarding (or CBT for hoarding). Based on research studies, this type of treatment is most likely to be effective in supporting long-term positive changes and leaving you less vulnerable to relapse. Unfortunately, there are very few South Florida psychologists who have formal experience with hoarding treatment. Make sure that when you interview your potential psychologist, you ask them about their experience in treating hoarding. A CBT orientation alone is not sufficient; make sure that they’ve treated other...
Read More
Specific phobias: symptoms & CBT treatment (reader question)
Question: Basically, I wanted to know from an expert, what can a phobia do to a person? How does it affect them mentally? Also I see that you’ve got a new treatment philosophy — is there any way you can talk me through it? One of the goals of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is to learn to better understand the interrelationships among thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Once you understand how these things are connected, it gives you a lot of power to implement change. Most people who seek therapy do so because they are experiencing an emotion they don’t want to have. In the case of depression, the person might feel sad. In the case of a phobia, the person might feel scared. People often have trouble modifying these feelings directly because emotions tend to be somewhat involuntary. If...
Read More
ERP therapy for OCD: Shifting from destructive to constructive to gestalt notions
Here’s a question for you: Is exposure and response prevention (ERP) fundamentally a destructive or constructive process? I think that many people naturally conceptualize it as more of the former than the latter. They conceive of ERP as being the process by which we can “unlearn” or “weaken” maladaptive associations. We learn, through repetition, to no longer be afraid of those things that previously incited fear. On the surface, this appears to be a notion predicated on destruction. In actuality, it is not. If you ever take the time to refer back to the basic animal literature on fear learning and fear “unlearning”, you’ll find that associations appear to be weakened largely as a consequence of new learning taking place. This new learning competes with (and weakens the expression of) previous learning. It is this process that accounts for...
Read MoreFollow Me
Or Call (561) 444-8040
CPBS – South Florida (Palm Beach County)
Outpatient & Intensive Treatment Programs for Adults, Kids, & Teens
Upcoming Events
Get Email Alerts
Meet the Author
Dr. Steven Seay is a licensed psychologist in Florida & Missouri. He is the Director of the Center for Psychological & Behavioral Science and provides treatment & therapy throughout South Florida, including Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Fort Lauderdale, & Miami.
Read more...