Practicing ERP in the courtyard
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Intensive Outpatient Program for Childhood OCD and Anxiety
Getting Kids and Families Back on Track
We now know that Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP) is an effective treatment for children and teens with OCD. However, not all children will benefit from traditional outpatient therapy. Some children’s OCD is so severe that it interferes with important activities such as attending school, spending time with friends, eating, and basic self-care. Many children with OCD start avoiding activities they once enjoyed. It is common for children with severe OCD to experience depression due to the severity of their symptoms.
Children with severe OCD may need more intensive ERP in order to make progress and get well.
Our Program
The aim of the program is to give children and families the treatment they need to get back on track. Treatment consists of ERP with a strong emphasis on parent-training. At the Center we use a Treatment Team model. The Treatment Team includes a Psychologist and a Behavior Analyst who specialize in Pediatric OCD.
Exposure and Response Prevention
ERP is a type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that is effective for Pediatric OCD. ERP consists of helping children systematically face their fears without the use of compulsions (reassurance seeking, washing, counting, tapping etc). When kids face their fear they learn that their worst fears are unlikely to come true. They also learn that they have a choice. Do I listen to my OCD or do boss it back? With repeated practice children learn that they can “shrink” their OCD by not feeding it with compulsions.
Research shows that parental behavior has a large impact on how successful children are in treatment. In order to help children successfully manage OCD we take a Family-Based CBT approach. This includes extensive parent education, training, parent-guided exposure, and the inclusion of siblings into treatment as needed.
