Justin’s Blog: “The Jog”

You heard me. Yes, practice Failure. Not just “accept your mistakes” when they happen.  It’s a technique in exposure to social anxiety, perfectionism, scrupulosity, and more.  It’s genius if you ask me.  The Brilliant Rationale The rationale and purpose of practicing failure is to develop more flexibility and to lean in when it’s “game-time.”   Hunter* […]

Two OCD Specialist colleagues (and friends) just having fun on how to write exposure scripts in OCD. Exposure Therapy, in a phrase, is the systematic and intentional triggering of fear while minimizing- and ideally eliminating- all pathological responses.  Imaginal Exposure accomplishes this with thoughts and ideas. It is done in the context of addressing unhelpful/pathological responses […]

Honored to be featured again in the I Am Second mental health blog, this post addresses the common occurrence of Intrusive Thoughts and how those of Christian faith can live in freedom. Click Here to Read NOW

“I feel like I really love my baby, but, I just don’t know. I have these terrible thoughts that pop into my mind. Thoughts of harming my baby. I actually vomited last night it made me so upset. I don’t know why I’m having these” “Everyone around me, including my pastor, seems to think I […]

When clients become experts in doing exposures (Social Anxiety, PTSD, OCD, Phobias), they become used to facing fear, disgust, and other uncomfortable feelings square on without tricks and escapes- while still pursuing the valued behaviors and thought processes they want.  Sounds too good to be true?  It’s not, but it takes discipline and hard work, […]

“You want me to do what?!” Many of my clients, and particularly for the sake of this article, Christian clients, are a bit surprised when I ask them to practice exposure.  Repeating scary, terrible thoughts on paper or aloud.  Doing things that feel risky.  It seems as a clinician I’m disrespecting your beliefs and don’t […]

Imagine intentionally telling yourself- again and again- “Maybe I’ll get sick and die.”  Or, “I’ll have a sudden urge to kill someone.” Or, “Maybe I blasphemed God and will go to hell.”  What if your therapist asked you to repeat these things to yourself?  Does that sound like negative self-talk?  A cause for grave concern?  […]

One of my first questions to a professor in my earliest IOCDF BTTI (Exposure Therapy training) at Massachusetts General Hospital was, “What happens if someone actually gets sick after a contamination exposure?”  I haven’t forgotten the simplicity of the answer that went something like this: “People get sick all the time. Yes, that might create some additional […]