Break Free from the Loop

Effective help for OCD Starts Here.

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We’re here to help

If you’re stuck in a cycle of intrusive thoughts, compulsive behaviors, constant doubt, or mental rituals, you’re not alone—and you don’t have to stay stuck. OCD can feel overwhelming and isolating, but it is highly treatable with the right approach. We use evidence-based methods like Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) to help individuals break free from the grip of OCD and reclaim their lives. Whether you’ve just started to recognize your symptoms or have been struggling for years, we can work together to help you move forward with clarity, confidence, and freedom.

Treatment approaches

We offer many different options rooted in evidence-based therapy.

Dr. Roldan trained initially at the Behavior Therapy Training Institute (BTTI) at UCLA in 2011 and has treated numerous clients with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder since that time. The BTTI is an in-depth, three-day intensive training course in cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for mental health professionals who are treating individuals with OCD and related disorders.
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Dr. Roldan attended two different, two-day intensive trainings in 2023 for Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) for use with OCD. This is an evidence-based treatment for OCD that has been in use in Europe since the 1990s but is newer in the United States. This approach is useful for all forms of OCD but is particularly attractive for clients dealing with some of the lesser known (and more taboo) forms of OCD such as scrupulosity, pedophilia OCD, etc.
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Dr. Roldan attended a two-day training with Dr. Pia Calleson (Denmark), author of Live More, Think Less, on the usefulness of the Meta-Cognitive Therapy approach for depression, generalized anxiety, social anxiety, mild OCD, and PTSD. The research on this approach is compelling, and MCT is well-suited for individuals in which rumination is a primary issue. This approach is popular in Europe and is recently being disseminated in the United States. Visit the MCT Institute website and read about the founder, Dr. Wells who trained Dr. Pia Calleson.
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Dr. Roldan completed an 8 week training with Dr. Michael Greenberg on RF-ERP. His approach is particularly useful for certain subtypes of OCD.

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faqs

Common questions about OCD therapy

Many people have misconceptions about OCD, including people who actually have OCD. What many people consider to be OCD is actually Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) which requires an entirely different approach. An important part of effective OCD treatment is to ensure the client actually has OCD and not OCPD or extreme perfectionism. Let the experts at 417 Psych help by starting with a proper evaluation!
OCD is a highly treatable disorder and should not be considered just another form of neurodivergence, at least not in the sense that many people use that word.
Research from 1997 showed that the the delay from onset of OCD symptoms to accurate diagnosis was 16 years (Hollander et al., 1997).
Twenty-five years later that delay was approximately cut in half, but that still means accurate diagnosis took about 7 years (Hezel, et al., 2022).
Accurate diagnosis is key… but even with accurate diagnosis, it’s often difficult to find a provider with the right training. That’s where 417 Psych comes in. We are here to help!
Early intervention can be key to helping individuals with OCD to live their best life. With that said, the DSM-5-TR indicates that when an individual has obsessions or compulsions, it achieves official diagnosis when it either causes significant distress (a subjective measure) or significantly interferes with functioning (educational, occupational, social, recreational). It further defines that taking 1 hour or more of your day spent on obsessional thinking or compulsive behavior. We encourage being proactive when it’s easier to treat.
Exposure-Response Prevention (ERP) is considered the gold-standard treatment for OCD. Other effective treatments include Inference-Based CBT (I-CBT), Rumination-Focused ERP (RF-ERP), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Meta-Cognitive Therapy (MCT) in mild cases. While medication is not always required, many individuals with OCD see better symptom reduction when also utilizing medication.
Because we don’t start with the most difficult aspects of OCD, exposure therapy is well-tolerated and highly effective in treating OCD. In fact, it’s considered to be the key component in nearly every effective treatment for OCD and anxiety disorders. However, more recent research shows that alternative approaches such as I-CBT (a purely cognitive approach) is also highly effective for many individuals as well and may be the preferred treatment for some individuals.
If a client has already tried ERP and hasn’t received satisfactory symptom reduction, I-CBT and MCT may be great options.
ERP is a behavioral treatment focused on doing the changes needed to fight OCD. You complete exposures and resist engaging in compulsions.
I-CBT is a cognitive intervention that focuses on knowing to make the changes. You learn to identify the obsessional story created by YOUR imagination that is hijacked by OCD. Once you discover the here-and-now and realize that your imagination is irrelevant to the here-and-now, you can begin to learn how your OCD causes you to selectively doubt things, and steps to take to live in the reality of the here-and-now (and stay out of the imagination).