Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Program

Exposure response prevention (ERP) is the most prevalent evidence-based intervention for OCD and the primary one we use at Brightline. ERP can be tough at first, because it asks the person with OCD to get exposure by confronting the things that are provoking their obsessions. The response prevention part refers to learning to be in that “triggered” state and making a conscious choice not to do the compulsive behavior that they’re used to. ERP is done slowly, and under the close supervision of the child’s therapist — we know how hard it is to face the very things that make a child struggling with OCD feel anxious and fearful. It takes time. Eventually though, kids learn how to manage their symptoms at home, school, and anywhere they may occur. Over time, this practice of exposure and response prevention teaches their brain that what they’re obsessing over is not actually a threat or something to fear. Much of how we treat OCD is proven effective for kids with anxiety as well.

At Brightline, parents are closely involved in their child’s care. Why? Because it’s central to the way we work (and it’s a core part of the evidence-based care we rely on). This is true both for younger kids and for teenagers. Your involvement might look different depending on your child’s age, developmental ability, and program. We’ll keep the discussion of how/why/why ongoing.

For very young children, parents are a huge part of their child’s care. The parent is the one with the fully developed brain — which means you’re also the one with the hindsight, insight, and foresight to integrate what we do in our sessions into the daily life of your young child. The way we train parents empowers them to use the skills that help with all the tiny, day-to-day interventions. This is so much more effective than having a clinician work with a child one-on-one for an hour a week and then just sending them home. During parent training sessions, sometimes kids are present, sometimes not. For example, if you're here because your child is experiencing separation anxiety, we might practice independence or separating from you, the parent, as part of their treatment.

For kids in this middle age group, parents should expect to be involved in every session. In some situations, they might even be more involved than their child. For others, parents will need to check in at the beginning or the end of the sessions. And in some cases, the involvement might be more evenly split or include more shared time. The specifics have a lot to do with why you're coming to care and the care plan you co-design with your clinician.

Even with teenagers, parents should still expect to be heavily involved. If they aren’t part of every session, it’s likely they’ll be part of every other. Typically, this looks like parents checking in at the beginning or the end of the session.

When we say parents are checking in, we don’t mean that we're telling you everything your child said or did when you weren’t there. (People would stop coming to us for care!) Instead, during the check-in time with parents, we’re relying on you for updates about how things have gone over the past week. We’ll ask you what changes you see, about the current symptoms or issues, and your point of view on how skills practice has been going. We’ll also fill you in on any new goals or skills that the child is expected to practice in the upcoming week; the more you know what your child is working on, the more you can support — and not accidentally work against the plan. Lastly, these check-ins are also for you to receive the guidance you need. We know kids don’t come with instructions, so a big part of our job is to teach you the skills you need to rely on during all those hours between sessions.

As evidence-based care devotees, we champion lifelong learning and continuing education. Our training director builds learning programs based on the latest research for our team. We hold weekly team meetings and consultation groups (including one-on-one meetings with managers) during which we discuss our clinical approach. Performance evaluations and quality oversight are both closely aligned with our evidence-based practice approach. Lastly, we invest in learning! Our teams receive professional development funds to make it easier for them to keep learning.