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title: "OCD in Adults: Where ART Fits"
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[![Reclaim Trauma Therapy](/__l5e/assets-v1/19256a02-c93a-4fb7-827c-85c90113de5b/reclaim-logo.png)](/)

[Meet Charle](/meet-charle)[How ART Works](/how-art-works)

[What I Treat](/what-art-treats)

-   [Acute and Complex Trauma](/what-art-treats/acute-and-complex-trauma)
-   [PTSD](/what-art-treats/ptsd)
-   [Single-Incident Trauma](/what-art-treats/single-incident-trauma)
-   [Phobias](/what-art-treats/phobias)
-   [Medical, Dental and Needle Fear](/what-art-treats/medical-and-dental-fear)
-   [Car Accidents and Driving Anxiety](/what-art-treats/car-accidents-and-driving-anxiety)
-   [Grief and Sudden Loss](/what-art-treats/grief-and-sudden-loss)
-   [Anxiety](/what-art-treats/anxiety)
-   [OCD](/what-art-treats/ocd)
-   [Emotion Regulation](/what-art-treats/emotion-regulation)

[Who I Work With](/who-i-work-with)

-   [First Responders](/who-i-work-with/first-responders)
-   [Veterans](/who-i-work-with/veterans)
-   [EMTs, ER and Healthcare Workers](/who-i-work-with/healthcare-workers)
-   [Therapists](/who-i-work-with/therapists)
-   [Doctors](/who-i-work-with/doctors)
-   [Corporate Leaders](/who-i-work-with/corporate-leaders)

[ART Intensives](/art-intensives)

[Locations](/locations)

-   [Kentucky](/locations/kentucky)
-   [Ohio](/locations/ohio)

[Rates](/rates)[For Clinicians](/for-clinicians)[Contact](/contact)[Schedule a consultation](https://calendly.com/reclaimtraumatherapy/freeconsultation)

What I Treat

# OCD in Adults: Where ART Fits

Intrusive thoughts and images, and the system you built to keep them quiet. Read the part about exposure and response prevention before you decide about this one.

## The Thought, and Then the Machinery

The content is usually the opposite of what you want. That is the cruelty of it, and the reason people sit on this for years before saying any of it in a room. Harm that you would never do. Contamination. A doubt about whether you did something, which no amount of remembering settles.

Around the thought is the machinery. Checking the stove and then checking whether the check counted. Rereading the email you already sent. Mentally reviewing a conversation from 2019 for evidence. Asking your partner one more time, in a slightly different way, so it does not sound like the same question. Arranging Saturday so the trigger never arrives.

It costs hours. It never resolves the question, and it usually charges interest: the relief lasts less time each round.

## Where ART Fits, and Where ERP Belongs

I want to be accurate about this. Exposure and response prevention is the frontline treatment for OCD, and ART is not a replacement for it. If you have never done ERP with a clinician who specializes in OCD, that is the conversation to have first, and I will say so at the consultation rather than after you have paid me.

What ART can work with is the image. OCD frequently runs on a vivid scene: the thing you are afraid you might do, or fail to prevent, playing in sharp detail and demanding a response right now. ART targets that image and the surge attached to it. When the picture carries less charge, the urgency behind the ritual has less to push with.

Nothing in this asks you to argue the thought down or prove it false. That is a debate OCD wins.

## What a Session on This Involves

We name the image plainly, in your own words, without dressing it up and without me reacting to the content. Then we work with it while I guide the eye movements.

I do not ask you to perform a compulsion in the room, and I do not ask you to white knuckle your way through resisting one. We track which rituals loosen and by how much, in ordinary units: minutes at the door, number of rechecks, how long the reassurance holds.

Sessions are 60 minutes by secure video, and this often runs alongside other OCD treatment rather than instead of it.

## What This Is Not, and When It Is Not the Fit

-   Not a formal exposure and response prevention program, and not a claim to replace one. 
-   Not medication management. If you take medication for OCD, that stays with your prescriber. 
-   Not reassurance. I will not answer the question the OCD is asking, and I will tell you why. 
-   Not a claim that intrusive thoughts stop, and never a promised number of sessions. 
-   Adults only, by secure video in Kentucky and Ohio. 

This is not a crisis service.

If you are in crisis, please call or text 988, call 911, or go to your nearest emergency room. ART is not appropriate during active psychosis or acute crisis. Individual outcomes vary.

## A free fifteen-minute consultation, including whether I am the right clinician.

Tell me what treatment you have already had. Part of what this call is for is deciding whether ART is a sensible addition for you or whether specialist OCD treatment should come first. You do not have to describe the content of the thought to me on that call.

[Schedule a free consultation](https://calendly.com/reclaimtraumatherapy/freeconsultation)[Back to What I Treat](/what-art-treats)

![Reclaim Trauma Therapy](/__l5e/assets-v1/19256a02-c93a-4fb7-827c-85c90113de5b/reclaim-logo.png)

Reclaim Trauma Therapy

Focused, practical trauma therapy for adults. Accelerated Resolution Therapy and extended ART intensives, by secure video in Kentucky and Ohio.

Charle Peck, LCSW, LISW, M.Ed.

Practice

-   [Meet Charle](/meet-charle)
-   [Rates & Policies](/rates)
-   [For Referring Clinicians](/for-clinicians)
-   [Contact](/contact)

Treatment

-   [How ART Works](/how-art-works)
-   [ART Intensives](/art-intensives)
-   [Is ART Right for Me?](/is-art-right-for-me)
-   [Frequently Asked Questions](/faq)
-   [Writing](/blog)

What I Treat

-   [Acute and Complex Trauma](/what-art-treats/acute-and-complex-trauma)
-   [PTSD](/what-art-treats/ptsd)
-   [Phobias](/what-art-treats/phobias)
-   [Anxiety](/what-art-treats/anxiety)
-   [OCD](/what-art-treats/ocd)
-   [All Conditions](/what-art-treats)

Who I Work With

-   [First Responders](/who-i-work-with/first-responders)
-   [Veterans](/who-i-work-with/veterans)
-   [EMTs, ER and Healthcare Workers](/who-i-work-with/healthcare-workers)
-   [Therapists](/who-i-work-with/therapists)
-   [Doctors](/who-i-work-with/doctors)
-   [Corporate Leaders](/who-i-work-with/corporate-leaders)
-   [Who I Work With](/who-i-work-with)

Serving

-   [Kentucky](/locations/kentucky)
-   [Ohio](/locations/ohio)
-   [Where I Practice](/locations)

This practice is not a crisis or emergency service, and messages are not monitored around the clock. If you are in immediate danger, experiencing a mental health emergency, or having thoughts of ending your life with intent or a plan, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), call 911, or go to your nearest emergency room for an assessment. Veterans can press 1 after dialing 988.

Contacting this practice does not establish a client relationship. Individual outcomes vary. Nothing on this site guarantees a specific clinical result.

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