When OCD Starts Taking Over Your Life?
OCD is not simply stress or overthinking. It is a cycle of intrusive thoughts, images, or urges that trigger intense discomfort, followed by behaviors or mental rituals meant to reduce that distress. These responses might include checking, reviewing, analyzing, seeking reassurance, avoiding situations, or trying to feel completely certain before moving forward.
Over time, OCD can dominate your mental space. You may find yourself constantly stuck in your head, questioning your thoughts, replaying conversations, or trying to determine whether a fear is real or dangerous. Even when part of you knows the fear doesn’t make sense, the urge to respond can feel overwhelming.
Left untreated, OCD often shrinks life. It can interfere with work, school, relationships, and your ability to enjoy day to day moments. Many people feel frustrated and discouraged, especially if they have tried traditional talk therapy or reassurance based approaches that did not help.
Specialized OCD Treatment for Colorado Springs Residents
I work exclusively with anxiety disorders and OCD, including a wide range of OCD themes and presentations. I provide treatment to teens and adults in Colorado Springs, including military families, professionals, parents, and individuals balancing demanding schedules.
Although my practice is based in Denver, I work with Colorado Springs residents entirely through online therapy. This allows you to access specialized OCD treatment without being limited by local availability or long commutes. Online OCD therapy is structured, effective, and well suited for exposure based treatment.
Evidence-Based ERP Treatment That Targets OCD at the Core
OCD does not improve by trying to think your way out of it, analyze thoughts more deeply, or find the perfect reassurance. In fact, those strategies often strengthen the cycle over time.
The most effective treatment for OCD is Exposure and Response Prevention, or ERP, a specialized form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. ERP is considered the gold standard treatment for OCD and is supported by decades of research.
ERP works by helping you gradually face feared thoughts, sensations, or situations while learning to resist compulsions and mental rituals. Over time, your brain learns that anxiety can rise and fall without needing certainty or control. This is how OCD loses its grip.
My approach is collaborative, structured, and tailored to your specific symptoms. We focus on changing how you respond to intrusive thoughts rather than trying to eliminate them.
Why Work With an OCD Specialist
OCD requires specialized treatment. Many well intentioned approaches unintentionally reinforce OCD by offering reassurance, encouraging excessive analysis, or avoiding feared material.
I have spent close to 15 years specializing in the treatment of anxiety disorders and OCD. My work focuses exclusively on evidence based approaches that reduce symptoms and support long term recovery.
Working with a specialist means receiving targeted treatment designed specifically for OCD, rather than strategies that provide temporary relief while keeping the cycle going.
What OCD Therapy Looks Like in Practice
Treatment begins with a clear understanding of how OCD shows up for you. Together, we identify your triggers, compulsions, avoidance patterns, and the core fears that keep the cycle going.
From there, we develop a gradual ERP plan that moves at a pace that is challenging but manageable. Sessions are active and focused. Between sessions, you will practice skills and exposures designed to help you apply what you are learning in real life.
Progress in OCD treatment is not about feeling calm all the time. It is about building the ability to tolerate uncertainty, discomfort, and doubt without letting OCD dictate your choices. Over time, this leads to meaningful and lasting change.
Start OCD Therapy in Colorado Springs
If OCD has been controlling more of your life than you want, help is available. With the right treatment, it is possible to break out of the OCD cycle and move forward with greater clarity and confidence.
I offer a free 20 minute online consultation to answer questions, discuss your symptoms, and help you determine whether my approach is the right fit.
Meet Josh Kaplan, LCSW -Colorado Springs OCD Therapist
If you’re living in Colorado Springs and struggling with OCD, you may feel trapped in patterns that don’t make sense but still feel impossible to stop. Intrusive thoughts that won’t go away. Constant doubt. Mental reviewing. Reassurance seeking. Compulsions that provide brief relief, only for the anxiety to return again and again. If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone, and effective help is available.
I’m Josh Kaplan, LCSW. I specialize in treating OCD and provide evidence based therapy to teens and adults in Colorado Springs and throughout El Paso County through secure online sessions. My work is focused on helping people break the OCD cycle and regain a sense of calm, confidence, and freedom in their daily lives.
CBT 4 Anxiety