OCD Therapy

for Kids & Teens

Hi, I'm Fear!

✩

Hi, I'm Fear! ✩

OCD Therapy in Orange County | Czarina De Jesus, LMFT

Oh, hey Fear! Here you are again!

Let’s talk about OCD in kids and teens!

There are plenty of OCD therapists out there, but you might find that it is a bit harder to find a therapist that specializes in treating OCD with kids and teens. That’s where I like to come in!

OCD is so unique and can be extra challenging in kids and teens. Obsessions and compulsions are the cornerstones of OCD. OCD tends to hijack the fear system (hence, why Fear is the perfect character for this page), keeping your child/teen in a state of fear. This causes children and teens to get stuck in The OCD Cycle in which they experience obsessions and compulsions. For kids and teens, it can be difficult to share what obsessions they may be having or compulsions they may be doing. It may even be extra scary if they do not have an understanding of the things they are experiencing.

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is often thought of as the gold standard in treating OCD. However, not all kids and teens respond well to ERP. I find that part of my challenge as a therapist is to find ways to make therapy relevant and age-appropriate for clients of all ages. This means, I like to utilize ERP in creative ways that feels personal and relevant. I lean on playfulness and humor to have fun in the therapy room. I teach concepts in a way that littles can understand as well. I make sure your child/teen is well equipped with not only tools, but knowledge that helps them have a deeper understanding of their OCD. Ultimately, this can help make them less Fearful of OCD. Yes, OCD can be strong. But clients can be stronger!

Stages of
OCD Therapy

Stage 1: Building a therapeutic alliance
- This stage is simple. It’s all about getting to know your child. I don’t want to just get to know your child’s OCD; I want to know THEM. I want to know the world they live in, their friends/family, their interests, their goals, what motivates them, etc.
Stage 2: Learning about OCD
- In this stage, I will equip your child with the knowledge they need to know about OCD and the tools to help them manage OCD. We’ll learn all about obsessions, compulsions, and The OCD Cycle in age-appropriate ways. Oftentimes, I will share this information with parents as well through a parenting session.
Stage 3: Practice makes Perfect
- In this stage, we will start putting the tools to the test and practice ways for your child to grow their power while shrinking the OCD.
Stage 4: Rinse & Repeat
- We will continue to practice and revise the things we learn to help us maintain and sustain our progress together.
Side Note: These stages are not always linear. We can go through different stages as many times as we need to and we can be in different stages at one time. Our work is also not limited to OCD as OCD tends to intersect with other challenges.

Signs that Your Child Might Benefit from OCD Therapy

Your child shares distressing thoughts or images that they are unable to stop thinking about for long periods of time
Your child expresses that they feel “forced” to perform certain behaviors or actions
Your child mentions intense fear about a past memory that they seem unable to get past
You witness your child engage in “odd” behaviors that appear illogical
Your child becomes deeply upset about fears that are sometimes not logical and/or typical for their age such as germs, contamination, death, getting sick, choking, etc.

OCD Therapy FAQs

Based on the type of outpatient therapy I provide, I can work with mild to moderate OCD symptoms. For OCD severity that is moderate, severe, or even extreme, higher levels of care will be the most appropriate treatment level such as Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOPs) that work with OCD.
Yes, absolutely! There are more classically known types of OCD such as Health OCD, Contamination OCD, or Symmetry OCD. But there are also several other subtypes such as Existentialism OCD, Health OCD, Relationship OCD, Disgust-Based OCD, and much more.
OCD can feel like a lot of fear and overwhelm and anxiety. But it is so much more than that. It often comes with this feeling of being stuck. Particularly, stuck in a loop. Individuals report feeling stuck with their emotions and also stuck with having to do the compulsions their OCD forces them to do.