Center for Anxiety & Chronic Worry

937 Tahoe Blvd., Ste. #210 Incline Village, Nevada 89451  

PHONE: 775.831.2436

Copyright (c) 2016-2017  Behavior Therapy & Family Counseling Clinic

All rights reserved    Barry C. Barmann, Ph.D.    Mary B. Barmann, MFT

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To learn more about OCD, click onto the link seen below, to read our Goggle+ Collection of articles on this topic:

Barry and Mary Barmann's Google Plus Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Collection

BEHAVIOR THERAPY AND FAMILY COUNSELING CLINIC

937 Tahoe Blvd; Ste. #210;  Incline Village (Lake Tahoe), Nevada 89451  

Phone: 775.831.2436

Center for Anxiety & Chronic Worry

Over the course of several years of clinical research, our Clinic, located in Incline Village, NV. (Lake Tahoe) has developed a very successful short-term, out-patient program for the treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), as seen within the adolescent, teen and adult population. Cognitive Therapy and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT) are the primary strategies employed by our Clinic, for the treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.  For the past several years, the research literature has consistently demonstrated through hundreds of empirical (evidence-based) studies that these treatment strategies are the “First Line” treatments of choice when working with an individual who experiences obsessions and/or compulsions. Due to the fact that many different forms of anxiety disorders, and particularly Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, are significantly affected by one’s unrealistic beliefs, thoughts, and misinterpretations of everyday events, our therapeutic goals primarily involve helping the client to become more aware of their specific cognitive "core beliefs", and their associated "cognitive errors" (misinterpretations), which may serve to trigger and/or maintain obsessive-compulsive symptoms.  It is also quite common for our therapists to assign specific tasks to be performed at home, or in the community,  following each treatment session, such that the client may practice newly learned skills acquired during therapy sessions for the purpose of enhancing, maintaining and generalizing these treatment gains to the individual’s home, work or social environments.  As a result of our Clinic’s Cognitive-Behavioral (CBT) orientation, therapeutic techniques directed at the treatment of OCD consist of specific cognitive therapy procedures, imagined and situational exposures to anxiety-provoking stimuli, and response (ritual) prevention concerning both covert and overt rituals.  In addition, our Clinic also supports, when indicated, the adjunct use of specific medications shown to have efficacy with respect to the treatment of OCD. These medications typically consist of those which affect the serotonergic system, such as Clomipramine (Anafranil), as well as several different SSRI medications (e.g., Prozac, etc.).  For more information regarding Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, please visit the Obsessive-Compulsive Foundation and the  Anxiety & Depression Assocation of America Web Sites.

In this video,we see a good depiction of, what we refer to as, the "Neuroanatomy of an Obsession". The brief 2-minute video clip shows the feedback loop between 3 areas of the brain: the Orbital-Frontal Cortex, Thalamus, and the Caudate Nucleus, all of which play a major role in the anatomy of an Obsession. As you will see in this clip, the THALAMUS is responsible for transmitting sensory information such as sight, sound, olfactory, etc. to the ORBITAL-FRONTAL CORTEX, which then activates the CAUDATE NUCLEUS to trigger specific behaviors, such as washing our hands. Once this process is complete, the feedback loop deactivates itself. This neurological process is necessary when we truly NEED certain sensory information from the Thalamus. However, in the case of OCD, this feedback loop is over active, meaning that the Thalamus is failing to filter out irrelevant sensory information en route to being processed by the Orbital-Frontal Cortex. Think of the Thalamus as being a secretary; the Orbital-Frontal Cortex is the CEO, and the Caudate Nucleus is a lower-level staff person at some company, following directives. Obsessive thoughts and images begin with the "bad secretary", who appears to not fully understand when to screen his/her CEO from irrelevant messages. This video clip will demonstrate what we mean.

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