OCD Intensive Workshop

A full-day intensive training for psychologists, provisional psychologists, counsellors, psychotherapists, and psychology students—focused on real-world OCD presentations (including taboo, high-stakes themes) and the practical skills that reliably improve outcomes in treatment. This course will not just focus on common themes like obsessive hand washing, but sensitive and shame inducing themes that revolve around taboo subjects (e.g., paedophilia) or bizarre thoughts like running babies over on the road.

Unfortunately, OCD is not one-size-fits-all. People experience very different obsession–compulsion patterns, and some symptom dimensions can be harder to assess and treat due to factors like shame or embarrassment. Clients with sexual, religious, or aggressive “taboo” obsessions often delay disclosure—or avoid treatment altogether—due to shame, guilt, and fear of judgement. These presentations can also make standard CBT/ERP more complex to design, deliver, and sustain.

Compounding this, many individuals with OCD wait a long time before receiving effective care, with research commonly reporting delays of 6–17 years between symptom onset and appropriate treatment - effectively giving OCD traits a significant head start. Comorbid factors (e.g., depression) can further reduce readiness and follow-through—impacting motivation, values-based engagement, and consistency with exposure work. And even after a strong response, relapse can be common: some studies report that up to ~60% experience a return of symptoms within 12 months of ceasing ERP, highlighting the need for robust relapse-prevention and flexible intervention options when ERP is difficult (e.g., ACT or Metacognitive therapy), stalled, or previously associated with setbacks.

What you will be provided with and learn
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• Receive access to all course materials (recording, journal articles and key resources) via our online platform (Share Drive), which supported the course structure. We emphasise the importance of critically appraising and validating sources. Ongoing access also supports revision and allows you to deepen your understanding of emerging directions in OCD research and treatment.

• Expand beyond oversimplified ideas like “ERP is the only therapy” or “OCD is just a chemical imbalance.” The reality is more nuanced—it’s complex. You’ll learn how individual factors shape and maintain symptoms, and how to adapt treatment accordingly• Understand why intrusive thoughts “spread” from plausible fears to increasingly less probable, more unlikely scenarios (the wildfire/generalisation effect).

• Understand why intrusive thoughts “spread” from plausible fears to increasingly less probable, more unlikely scenarios (the wildfire/generalisation effect).

• Identify perpetuating factors of OCD (avoidance, intolerance of uncertainty, catastrophising, and “not-just-right” responding), and apply practical strategies to clamp the cycle by reducing reinforcement and increasing approach-based behaviour.

• Deliver ERP using modern learning principles (beyond “anxiety must drop”), including expectancy testing/inhibitory learning, and troubleshoot common barriers (non-adherence, covert rituals, shame, dropout risk).

• Confidently recognise other treatments like CT, ACT and Metacognitive Therapy for treating and managing OCD presentations.

• A deeper understanding of how brains create thoughts, but its bidirectional• Normalise intrusions + reduce shame so clients can disclose taboo themes (sexual/religious/aggressive) without fearing judgement.

• Use routine measurement (e.g., Y-BOCS / CY-BOCS) and track function. Good treatment is iterative: if you’re not seeing meaningful change, you change the plan (dose/intensity, targets, family involvement, format).

• OCD is treated most effectively with a combined approach that addresses both biological and cognitive-behavioural drivers—where medication and psychological therapy together often produce the best outcomes.

What you can apply in clinical settings

‍• Planning and combining interventions (ERP + ACT + Metacognitive Therapy) you can apply from emerging theory and actual clinical case studies.

• Access to OCD case-formulation templates that incorporate key factors that maintain OCD symptomology to better fit your "client's personal story."

• Treatment planning beyond “ERP only” (e.g., cognitive and metacognitive approaches, modern learning principles).

• Identity-, morality-, and responsibility-driven OCD presentations and how to manage these with your clients.

• Practical language for reassurance-seeking and safety behaviours for children, adolescents and adults. How to better manage and treat taboo topics, this can be difficult for clinicians too.

• Increased confidence with complex OCD themes.

• A guide to building treatment plans aligned with NICE and contemporary recommendations.
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