Inference-Based CBT
(I-CBT)
Offering Online Therapy Across California & In-Person Therapy in Roseville, CA
Let Go of Doubt and Trust Yourself Again
You’ve been struggling with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) for almost as long as you can remember. The obsessions might have changed over time, but they are always there. You are constantly fighting the compulsions, and they seem to win every time.
It isolates you from family and friends who don’t understand. Prevented you from getting promotions or jobs that you wanted.
It’s interfering with your ability to have the life you want and reach your goals.
The powerlessness you feel towards your OCD is overwhelming. Nothing seems to help, and you have been struggling with it for years.
You’ve tried talk therapy. You’ve tried medication. You may have even tried other types of therapy specifically for OCD.
But nothing has worked the way you had hoped. It might work a little bit or for a little while, but you never achieve the freedom from OCD that you are looking for.
I-CBT can help you find a quieter mind
You want to go through your day without the obsessions taking over your mind. Without having to do these silly actions that your logical brain knows don’t help at all.
You want to be able to interact with a trigger and still have a good day, good week, or good month.
You would love to have the freedom to get up and go to work the way it seems like everyone else does.
It would be so nice to have a calm and quiet mind. To be able to go out in public or spend time with family without feeling self-conscious about compulsions. You’d love not to have to worry about hiding compulsions. It’d be even better to not have fear that runs rampant through your brain and interferes with your ability to be present and involved.
You want to go through life without feeling powerless against your own mind. You want to feel like you can trust yourself, your senses, and the world around you. In the way that it seems everyone else does.
I-CBT for Obsessive Compulsive Behaviors
Most therapies for OCD target the behaviors that result from your obsessions. They teach you to intentionally not engage in the compulsions to prove to your brain that you are safe without doing them. These therapies teach you to do this while also helping you to regulate your nervous system and release the fear that comes from not engaging in your compulsions.
These therapies do work and are highly effective. In fact, I also offer exposure therapy which is a type of this therapy. But for some people either because the fit with the therapist wasn’t quite right or because the client just can’t bring themselves to follow all the way through with the treatment protocol it isn’t always as effective as we would hope.
Where other OCD treatments target compulsions, I-CBT targets the obsessions. It sees obsession as the first step in the OCD cycle, and another place where we can make changes.
The idea is that the obsession comes from doubt. This obsessional doubt is a place where we have stopped trusting ourselves and what our senses tell us about the world around us.
When OCD is in control, we become absorbed in the story that this doubt is telling us, which then requires us to engage in certain behaviors to make the obsessional doubt go away.
Helping the person with OCD engage differently with the obsessional doubt interferes with the OCD cycle. It alleviates the need for compulsions and lowers the stress and anxiety caused by the doubt.
Can I-CBT Help My OCD?
In my experience, I-CBT has been helpful for my clients. I love that it gives me a different option for therapy when other treatment options have not been as effective as the client hoped.
I have seen I-CBT to be highly effective for my clients with OCD, but it works particularly well with clients who:
→ Have previously tried Exposure and Response Prevention therapy (ERP), but it was too overwhelming or just wasn’t as helpful as was hoped.
→ Are unmotivated to try ERP therapies.
→ Are analytical and logical.
→ Highly motivated for change, especially for a cognitive and structured approach.
On the other hand, ERP might be a better option if;
→ You prefer action over insight and understanding.
→ You are motivated to actively face your fears.
→ You are interested in the approach with the highest amount of research and evidence backing it.
→ You want results as fast as possible.
What Does I-CBT Look Like?
I-CBT is a research-based cognitive approach to obsessive-compulsive behavior. I like to think of it as looking under the hood of your obsessions before they cause your compulsions.
During I-CBT treatment, we look at how your mind creates the obsessional doubts that fuel the rest of your OCD. Together, I help you to learn to approach all of your obsessions from this perspective.
If we can resolve the obsessional doubts, it resolves your OCD.
In I-CBT, we focus on your obsessions by helping you to deconstruct your obsessional doubts.
Deconstructing your obsessional doubt looks like closely examining your thoughts and the stories that your obsessions are telling you through a variety of written and behavioral exercises.
We look at what happens after the trigger and identify the point where the doubt comes into your thoughts. We examine this doubt and work together to deconstruct it.
During this process, we also identify and examine the core vulnerability that your OCD is trying to protect you from. This will help us to understand the root of your obsessions and give you more context for working with the doubt when it comes up.
I-CBT also includes some experiential activities. These activities are aimed at helping you learn how to resolve the doubt by teaching you to trust reality without experiencing anxiety.
My goal for you through this treatment is that by the time you graduate from therapy, you’re able to trust your inner and outer senses so that doubt doesn’t take over the way it has in the past.
I want you to know how to work with that doubt and resolve it anytime it comes back up in your mind.
By going through this process, we will help you to resolve your OCD symptoms where they start. You might continue to have doubt enter your mind, but my goal for you by the end of treatment is that you know how to work with it and resolve it before it gets to the point of consistent compulsions.
Ready For I-CBT?
My clients have received a lot of benefit from this type of therapy, and I hope that you will too. If you are interested in talking to me about your OCD and how I-CBT might help, please reach out for a free consultation by clicking the button below.