When the same doubt keeps returning, it can take up more of the day than you expect. You may check, review, or ask for reassurance and still feel no closer to certainty. That is exhausting, especially when you understand the pattern and still feel pulled to respond. Therapy can help you change how you respond to intrusive thoughts, reduce the time spent on compulsions, and help you find greater freedom from OCD.
You checked the lock before you left. You checked it again on the way to the car. Now you are three blocks away, replaying whether you turned the deadbolt or only think you remember doing it.
The doubts feel endless and intrusive, and the compulsions leave you drained and tired.
By the time you get home, you have reviewed it several more times, and leaving the house has taken much longer than you planned. Knowing this is happening in your head does not make the urge easier to stop. The doubt can still pull you back to check, review, or ask again. If anxiety and panic also reach beyond the OCD concerns, we can look at those patterns directly rather than treating every worry as the same problem.
OCD therapy may be worth considering if you:
We might start with a recent situation where OCD showed up and slow it down together. What actually happened? Where did doubt enter? What did your mind tell you it meant, how did you feel, and what did you do next? Understanding that pattern helps us decide where change may be most useful.
Depending on your symptoms, goals, and the treatment approach we’re using, our work may focus on responding differently to intrusive thoughts and urges, stepping out of compulsive patterns, understanding how obsessional doubt develops, or learning to move toward what matters even when uncomfortable thoughts and feelings are present. Between sessions, we may agree on exercises that help you practice these changes in your everyday life.
Excellence doesn't have to come from constant pressure.
I’m Dr. Nellie Harari, and I tend to connect well with adults who think carefully about their lives and want more than a place to talk. I ask questions that help us tease apart what you are thinking and feeling, understand the patterns that keep you stuck, and decide what you want to change. I will tell you what I notice and suggest a direction, but anything we try follows the goals we set together.
OCD can show up in ordinary moments, even when no one else can see what is happening. The examples below describe how unwanted thoughts and doubt, compulsions, and avoidance can take up time and attention and get in the way of living the life you want.
You check the stove before bed, then return because you cannot remember whether you looked closely enough. A few minutes can turn into an hour, and the repeated checking can contribute to making insomnia part of the picture. Even while sitting in Cadman Plaza Park later that day, your attention may still be on a door you already locked.
An unwanted thought or image can appear without warning and feel completely out of character. Trying to figure out what it means can lead to reviewing, confessing, or avoiding someone you care about. The shame that follows may wear down self-esteem, make the thought feel increasingly important, and pull you further into questioning what the thought might say about your values or intentions.
The concern may have little to do with danger. A sentence has to be reread, an object adjusted, or a step repeated because the first attempt felt incomplete. The standard keeps shifting, so one correction quickly becomes another. What looks small from the outside can take a surprising amount of time and concentration.
Checking, counting, reviewing, reassurance seeking and avoidance all take time. Plans may be delayed because a compulsion feels unfinished, while part of your attention stays fixed on something you still feel you need to resolve. Over time, having less room for the people and activities that matter to you can also affect your mood. Depression may develop alongside OCD, particularly when motivation, interest, or enjoyment begin to change.
My work is grounded in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy [link here] and draws from evidence-based treatments for OCD. We slow down the situations in which OCD shows up, understand the patterns involved, and determine where change may be most helpful. The specific approach is shaped by your concerns, goals, and the patterns that keep OCD going.
ERP and I-CBT are the primary OCD treatments I use. I integrate ACT, mindfulness, and compassion-focused strategies when they can help you respond differently to difficult thoughts and feelings, move toward what matters, or reduce shame and self-criticism.
In Exposure and Response Prevention, we approach a thought, situation, or feeling that brings up anxiety and practice responding differently to the urge to perform the compulsion that usually follows. We start with something challenging but manageable, decide each step together, and revise the plan when needed.
This may include:
I-CBT focuses on how an ordinary possibility becomes a convincing doubt, even when the information in front of you points elsewhere. I help you trace that reasoning and return to what your senses and the situation support.
This may include:
When it would be helpful, I may also draw on ACT, mindfulness, and compassion-focused strategies. They can help you pause before reacting to an urge, make choices based on what matters to you, and respond to shame or self-criticism with more balance.
ACT and mindfulness strategies can be incorporated into both ERP and I-CBT. They can help you notice difficult thoughts, feelings, and urges without automatically responding to them or trying to make them go away. Together, these approaches support choices based on your values and the life you want to live rather than OCD’s immediate demand for certainty.
This may include:
Intrusive thoughts can trigger shame and harsh self-judgment, especially when their content touches on something deeply important to you. Compassion-focused strategies can help you notice the self-criticism that follows and develop a less punitive, more balanced way of responding to yourself.
This may include:
The first appointment is a 45-minute initial consultation focused on understanding what has been happening and what you want to change. We do not begin exposure exercises during that conversation.
My goal is for you to leave with a clearer picture of how I understand what you’re experiencing, what I recommend, and whether working together feels like the right next step.
Living with OCD is hard, but treatment can help you reclaim your time, confidence, and freedom.
We start by exploring what’s going on beneath the surface so we can understand what’s driving your challenges.
Together, we connect the dots between your thoughts, emotions and behaviors to discover the meanings you place on distressing events in your life.
You’ll learn and try out new ways of thinking, feeling, and responding that support lasting,
healthy change.
We focus on deepening your growth and helping you carry what you’ve learned into everyday life with confidence and clarity.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) involves obsessions and compulsions that can interfere with daily life. Obsessions are intrusive thoughts, images, or urges that keep returning. Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts used to reduce distress or reach certainty, even though the relief usually fades.
Obsessions and compulsions are connected, but they describe different parts of the OCD pattern. The obsession is the unwanted doubt, thought, image, or urge. The compulsion is the action or mental response used to settle it.
Recurring doubts, intrusive thoughts or mental images, and a persistent sense that something may be wrong or unresolved.
Anxiety, dread, shame, or frustration that rises when the doubt feels unresolved.
Checking, washing, counting, arranging, avoiding, seeking reassurance, mentally reviewing or repeating an action until it feels complete.
The subject of an obsession can change, while the repeated doubt and response often look similar. Common names describe the concern that receives the most attention, rather than separate diagnoses.
Risk factors for OCD can include family history, biological vulnerability, and stressful life events, but one factor rarely explains the whole picture. A careful assessment looks at when the concerns became noticeable, what was happening around that time, and what now keeps the cycle active. A risk factor describes the possibility rather than certainty about why OCD developed.
OCD may need more attention when obsessions or compulsions take significant time, cause distress, or change how you handle ordinary responsibilities. Avoidance of situations, seeking constant reassurance, or rearranging the day around repeated behaviors can all affect daily life. When checking or avoidance starts controlling how you plan your day, a fuller assessment can help clarify the amount of time, disruption, and emotional strain involved.
Someone searching for therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder may use terms such as OCD therapist, OCD psychologist, or therapist specializing in OCD. In a directory, the same service may be listed as OCD counseling or treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder. The title alone cannot tell you how someone approaches treatment. Ask the mental health professional to explain their experience with OCD, how they use ERP or I-CBT, and how treatment goals are decided.
Nellie is a licensed clinical psychologist and provides I-CBT and ERPt for OCD. She also provides CBT for a range of concerns for adults.
A comprehensive OCD evaluation begins with a detailed conversation about the obsessions, compulsions, avoidance, and reassurance seeking that are occurring now. Nellie’s initial evaluation also covers mental health history, earlier therapy, daily-life effects, and the goals that matter to you. She then explains her recommendations and an initial personalized treatment plan, which may include further assessment when needed.
Evidence-based treatments for OCD include specialized forms of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Nellie primarily uses Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT), working with you to determine which approach best fits your symptoms, goals, and the patterns keeping OCD going. Nellie may also integrate strategies from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), mindfulness, and compassion-focused therapy to help with difficult thoughts and emotions, values-based action, shame, or self-criticism.
An effective treatment plan should make sense to you. Before we begin, I will explain what I recommend, why I recommend it, and what the work may look like both during sessions and between appointments.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) combines planned exposure with response prevention. You gradually approach a thought, situation, object, image, sensation, or feeling that triggers OCD while practicing a different response to the urge to perform a compulsion. The steps are planned collaboratively, beginning with something challenging enough to be useful without starting with your hardest concern.
It gives you a chance to see what happens when you do not answer every obsession with checking, washing, reviewing, reassurance seeking, or other compulsions, and when you begin approaching situations OCD has led you to avoid.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) examines the connections among thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and the patterns that keep distress going. In CBT for OCD, we look at how you interpret intrusive thoughts and doubt, what you do in response, and how those responses may unintentionally keep the OCD cycle going. Treatment focuses on developing different ways of responding so that OCD has less influence over your choices and daily life.
OCD-specific treatments such as ERP and I-CBT are grounded in cognitive-behavioral principles but target the OCD cycle in different ways. Nellie tailors the approach to the patterns you are experiencing and the goals you identify together with her.
Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) focuses on how a possibility can become a convincing obsessional doubt, even when what you observe in the here and now points elsewhere. The reasoning that led to the doubt is traced and you learn to recognize when OCD is pulling you away from information available through your senses and the current situation and into imagined possibilities.
Together, you and Nellie will consider your OCD symptoms, treatment goals, and preferences and decide whether I-CBT or ERP is the better fit for you.
Severe OCD usually calls for a treatment plan that matches the amount of time, avoidance, and disruption involved. The underlying approaches may remain ERP or I-CBT, while the pace, frequency, and support around sessions can change. Medication management may also be discussed with a qualified prescriber when symptoms are intense.
Family support can be important to treatment when relatives have become part of reassurance seeking. Nellie can provide guidance to family members when needed to support patients’ recovery from OCD.
Medication management is one treatment option some people discuss with a physician or psychiatrist. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are commonly considered for OCD, but questions about benefits, side effects, and dosing belong with a qualified prescriber. Medication can be discussed alongside OCD therapy without assuming it is necessary for every person.
The length of therapy for OCD depends on the concerns involved, how much they affect daily life, the goals you set, and what happens between sessions. Nellie typically begins with weekly appointments and reviews the treatment plan as patterns change. Later sessions may focus on long-term maintenance, planning for future stress, and deciding whether less frequent appointments or follow-up support would be useful.
A coping strategy may relieve anxiety briefly, while the demand for certainty returns. Coping strategies used in OCD therapy differ and may depend on which form of treatment you choose. They may include pausing, naming the urge, noticing the current moment reality through your senses, and delaying the compulsion. The aim is to choose a response you have discussed in therapy rather than inventing a new rule in the middle of a hard moment.
If you feel unsafe or unable to function, contact a licensed mental health professional or an appropriate urgent support service.
Without treatment, obsessions, compulsive behaviors, and avoidance can take more time and influence more decisions. Reassurance may need to be repeated, and fewer situations may feel manageable. Anxiety, low mood, relationships, concentration, and emotional regulation can also be affected when the cycle remains active.
People can still make changes after the pattern has been present for years. An evaluation can clarify the current pattern and the level of support that may be appropriate.
New Heights CBT offers in-person OCD treatment in Brooklyn Heights and online OCD therapy throughout New York State. Nellie is a licensed clinical psychologist trained in both ERP and I-CBT. She asks specific questions, offers direction, and decides the starting point with you based on the concerns and goals you describe. Location can make scheduling easier, but training and fit still matter.
Yes. Nellie offers online OCD therapy for adults anywhere in New York State through a secure video platform. Online sessions can include the same structured discussion, planning, and between-session exercises used for in-person OCD therapy. They can also make it possible to address concerns in the environment where checking, washing, or avoidance occurs.
If you are searching for an OCD therapist near me in Brooklyn, look beyond distance and ask what the provider offers for OCD specifically. New Heights CBT is located at 26 Court Street, Suite 600, in Brooklyn Heights, near Borough Hall and Court Street Station. Nellie provides obsessive-compulsive disorder therapy in person there and online throughout New York State.
The office is also convenient for adults coming from Cobble Hill, DUMBO, and Boerum Hill.
New Heights CBT provides OCD therapy with a licensed clinical psychologist. Current fees, insurance details, and access information are listed below.
To begin OCD treatment in Brooklyn, schedule a free 15-minute consultation. You can ask questions, describe what has been happening, and decide whether to schedule the 45-minute initial consultation. If you continue, Nellie uses that appointment to review the current concerns, earlier therapy, daily-life effects, and possible treatment options.
A free 15-minute consultation gives us time to discuss what has been happening and whether my approach fits with what you need.
