What Is ERP and How Can It Help with OCD?

If you’re living with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), you probably know how exhausting it can be. Intrusive thoughts, intense doubt, and the urge to perform rituals or seek reassurance can feel overwhelming. You might find yourself avoiding certain situations, questioning your values, or spending hours trying to feel “just right.” It’s not just anxiety, it’s a cycle that can take over your life.

The gold-standard treatment for OCD is Exposure and Response Prevention, or ERP. But what exactly is ERP, and how does it work?

What Is ERP?

ERP is a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) specifically designed to treat OCD. It involves two core components:

1. Exposure: Gradually facing the thoughts, images, or situations that trigger your anxiety or distress.

2. Response Prevention: Choosing not to engage in the compulsions, rituals, or avoidance behaviors that temporarily reduce that anxiety.

This process helps retrain your brain and body. Over time, the things that once felt unbearable begin to feel more manageable, and you reclaim your ability to live life on your terms.

How ERP Works in Practice

ERP is collaborative and structured. In therapy, we identify your intrusive thought patterns and map out the behaviors that follow, whether it's checking, washing, avoiding, confessing, or mentally reviewing. We then build a hierarchy of exposures, starting with easier challenges and moving toward harder ones, always at a pace that feels doable.

You might:

• Touch something you fear is “contaminated” without washing your hands

• Allow a distressing thought to be there without neutralizing it

• Practice saying “maybe, maybe not” in the face of moral or relationship-related doubt

The goal isn’t to eliminate thoughts, it’s to change your relationship to them.

Why ERP Is So Effective

OCD tricks you into believing that certainty and safety can be achieved through rituals. But the more you feed that cycle, the stronger it becomes. ERP interrupts the loop.

Over time, your nervous system learns: I can feel anxiety and not act on it. I can tolerate uncertainty. I can live without constant checking or reassurance.

ERP helps rewire these fear-based patterns by:

• Reducing sensitivity to triggers

• Building distress tolerance

• Restoring trust in your values, not your fears

A Human-Centered Approach

I understand that ERP can sound intimidating at first. That’s why my approach is always collaborative, compassionate, and paced with care. We integrate tools from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and mindfulness to support the emotional work of ERP, helping you stay grounded, present, and connected to what matters most.

Whether you’re dealing with harm OCD, contamination fears, relationship OCD, or existential themes, ERP can help you step out of the loop and into your life.

Ready to Begin?

If you’re looking for OCD treatment in California, I offer ERP therapy via telehealth statewide and in-person in Santa Monica. I’d be honored to support you.

Schedule a free 20-minute consultation to learn more and see if we’re a good fit.

5 Ways ACT Helps with Anxiety and Overthinking

Anxiety often shows up as mental noise: What if something goes wrong? What does this mean? Why can’t I stop thinking about it? You may try to logic your way out of it, only to end up deeper in the loop. This is where Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) offers a powerful shift in how you relate to your thoughts.

ACT helps you build a different relationship with anxiety, not by eliminating it, but by learning how to carry it with more flexibility, compassion, and purpose.

Here are five ways ACT supports people who struggle with anxiety, overthinking, and mental compulsions:

1. You Learn to Observe Thoughts, Not Obey Them

ACT teaches a skill called cognitive defusion: the ability to notice your thoughts as thoughts, not truths. Instead of getting tangled in the content (e.g., I need to figure this out now), you step back and observe the thought like a passing cloud.

This helps reduce the urgency to analyze, fix, or solve every worry. It’s not about convincing yourself it’s okay, but learning to say: This is a thought I’m having, and I can keep moving anyway.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

2. You Practice Willingness Instead of Avoidance

Anxiety makes us want to avoid discomfort at all costs. ACT gently encourages the opposite: willingness. That means learning how to make room for anxiety, physical tension, or doubt without shutting down, avoiding, or numbing out.

It’s not about liking anxiety. It’s about learning how to stay with it just long enough to act on what matters.

3. You Clarify Your Values

One of ACT’s central questions is: What kind of life do you want to build, even with anxiety here?

Instead of trying to eliminate fear before taking action, ACT helps you move toward your values—the relationships, pursuits, and experiences that make life meaningful. This gives anxiety a new context: it becomes something you carry on the way to something you care about.

4. You Learn Mindful Anchoring Skills

ACT includes present-moment practices to help you connect with your body, breath, and environment. These tools are especially helpful when anxiety becomes overwhelming or you feel stuck in rumination.

Simple grounding practices, like naming what you see or feeling your feet on the floor, can offer a way back to the moment you’re living in.

5. You Take Committed Action (Even When It’s Hard)

ACT empowers you to take meaningful action, even when anxiety is along for the ride. Instead of waiting until you feel “ready” or certain, you learn to move forward anyway, with courage, intention, and self-compassion.

It’s not about perfect outcomes. It’s about living in alignment with your values, moment by moment.

ACT in Therapy

In my work, I integrate ACT with other evidence-based approaches like Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), mindfulness, and body-based awareness. This creates a flexible, supportive space to explore anxiety without getting stuck in the loop of trying to fix or figure it all out.

If you struggle with chronic worry, overthinking, or the feeling that your mind is always one step ahead of you, ACT may offer the reset you’re looking for.

Ready to Begin?

I offer ACT-informed therapy via secure telehealth across California and in person in Santa Monica. If you’re ready to approach anxiety differently, I’d love to connect.

Schedule a free 20-minute consultation to learn more.

How to Support Yourself When You’re in a Loop

You know the feeling: you're stuck in your head, circling the same thought over and over. You've already analyzed it from every angle, maybe even talked it out, but the discomfort won’t let go. Whether it’s a fear, a doubt, or a “what if,” the loop has a grip—and it’s exhausting.

This article offers a gentle roadmap for what to do when you're in a loop, drawn from evidence-based tools used in OCD and anxiety treatment.

First, Name What’s Happening

When you're in a loop, the mind will try to convince you that you're solving something. But most of the time, it's just rumination: a mental compulsion that feeds anxiety instead of resolving it.

Try naming it out loud or in your head:

“I’m in a loop right now. This is the part where my brain wants certainty.”

This simple move shifts you from being in the thought to observing the process. That’s already progress.

Then, Reorient Gently to Your Body

Loops live in the mind, but regulation begins in the body. Use this moment to pause and anchor:

• Feel your feet on the floor or ground

• Notice your breath (no need to change it)

• Name 3 things you see, 2 you hear, 1 you feel

These sensory cues invite you back into the here and now, where you have agency, even with discomfort present.

Remember: You Don’t Need to Solve This Right Now

One of the hardest parts of OCD or anxiety loops is the urgency. Your brain insists: This needs to be figured out NOW. But the truth is:

Real insight doesn’t come from compulsion—it comes from space.

You don’t have to argue with the thought. You don’t have to answer it. You can let it be unfinished for now.

Choose a Values-Based Micro-Step

Ask yourself:

If I weren’t in this loop right now, what would I want to be doing?

Then do the smallest next step in that direction:

• Step outside

• Text a friend

• Open a book

• Eat something nourishing

• Sit with your partner without confessing or analyzing

You’re not avoiding—you’re re-engaging with life. That’s the heart of response prevention.

Offer Yourself Compassion

The loop isn’t your fault. It’s not a sign that you’re broken or failing recovery. It’s your nervous system trying to protect you using old patterns.

Try saying:

“Of course this loop is here. I’m human, and I’m learning a new way.”

Compassion doesn’t mean giving up. It means recognizing the suffering and choosing a wiser path forward.

You're Not Alone in This

This kind of stuckness is so common for people with OCD and anxiety. You’re not weak, and you’re not doing it wrong. You’re learning how to relate to your mind differently—with clarity, compassion, and courage.

I support clients through this every day using ERP, ACT, mindfulness, and body-based interventions. If you're struggling with intrusive thoughts or mental compulsions, therapy can help.

Want Support?

I offer therapy for OCD and anxiety across California via secure telehealth and in person in Santa Monica. Together, we can help you get unstuck and return to what matters.

Schedule a free 20-minute consultation

Nature Therapy: Why It Works When You Feel Stuck

There’s something powerful about stepping outside when your mind feels noisy. The nervous system settles, your breath deepens, and thoughts that felt tangled begin to soften. Nature therapy builds on that instinct, offering a way to reconnect with your body, shift perspective, and begin healing in a space that’s alive and spacious.

If you’ve been stuck in anxiety, grief, or chronic overthinking, nature-based therapy might offer a different kind of doorway.

What Is Nature Therapy?

Nature therapy takes place outside, on foot, by the water, or in other natural spaces, and integrates somatic awareness, mindfulness, and relational work. Instead of being limited to the four walls of a traditional therapy office, nature becomes part of the therapeutic process.

We might walk along a trail, pause by the ocean, or use movement and sensory input as a way to explore what’s happening inside. The external landscape supports internal shifts.

Why Nature Helps When You’re Stuck

Nature therapy is especially helpful for people who:

• Tend to get caught in their heads

• Feel overstimulated or disconnected from their bodies

• Have already tried talk therapy, but want a more embodied experience

Here’s what makes it effective:

• Movement supports regulation. Walking, biking, or gentle movement helps release tension and access a more integrated state.

• Natural environments calm the nervous system. Research shows that nature lowers cortisol and increases parasympathetic activity.

• It invites presence. Watching light on water, noticing a breeze, or hearing birdsong naturally grounds you in the present moment.

• There’s more space. Clients often report that being outdoors makes it easier to talk about vulnerable or stuck topics.

You Don’t Have to Be “Outdoorsy”

Nature therapy isn’t about extreme hiking or performance. It’s about meeting yourself gently and fully, in a setting that supports that. You don’t need experience with mindfulness or nature work. Just a willingness to try something different.

Sessions are collaborative and paced around your comfort level. We might sit on a bench, walk quietly, or move in and out of more structured therapeutic dialogue.

Nature, Surf, and Somatic Support

In my practice, I also draw from surf-informed therapy and somatic regulation tools. While I don’t teach surfing, I often work with clients who already have a connection to the ocean and want to deepen that relationship through intentional emotional work.

Whether you’re navigating life transitions, burnout, grief, or anxiety, nature therapy offers a way to reset: gently, intentionally, and in connection with something larger than yourself.

Ready to Explore?

I offer nature-based sessions in and around Santa Monica and Westside LA, as well as traditional telehealth sessions across California. If you’re curious about this work, I’d love to talk.

Schedule a free 20-minute consultation to learn more.