At Talking Therapies UK, we offer online OCD therapy using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) — a highly effective, evidence-based approach for managing obsessive-compulsive thoughts and behaviours.
Our goal is to help you regain control, reduce anxiety, and build long-term coping strategies that improve your overall wellbeing. Our experienced therapists provide compassionate, structured, and personalised care designed to meet your unique needs.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety-related condition characterised by intrusive, repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and compulsive behaviours or mental rituals (compulsions). These patterns can cause significant distress and interfere with daily life, work, and relationships.
Obsessions are recurrent, intrusive thoughts, urges, or images that trigger intense anxiety or discomfort.
Common examples include:
These thoughts often feel uncontrollable, leading to distress and a strong urge to neutralise them through compulsive behaviour.
Compulsions are repetitive behaviours or mental actions performed to relieve anxiety or prevent a feared event.
Typical compulsions include:
While compulsions may provide momentary relief, they reinforce the cycle of anxiety and make the symptoms stronger over time.
OCD can create a powerful cycle where obsessions trigger anxiety and compulsions temporarily reduce it — only for the anxiety to return stronger. Over time, this cycle can dominate daily life, making it difficult to focus, relax, or feel in control.
People with OCD often describe feeling trapped by their thoughts or routines, even when they recognise that the fears are excessive or irrational. Without professional support, OCD can affect relationships, career stability, and emotional wellbeing.
OCD can feel like a monster that grows stronger each time it’s fed.
When you respond to intrusive thoughts with compulsions, it may seem like you’re reducing anxiety — but in reality, you’re teaching the mind that the obsession is dangerous.
No amount of compulsive behaviour truly satisfies the “monster.”
Through online OCD therapy, you’ll learn to recognise that a thought is just a thought — it doesn’t define you or control what happens.
By learning to tolerate uncomfortable feelings without performing rituals, you gradually weaken the cycle and regain control over your mind.
Avoiding perceived contaminants, places, or objects.
Reviewing/replaying events or conversations in your mind to check if everything was okay.
Imagining potential future scenarios to check for the likelihood of a catastrophe and plan coping strategies.
Repeatedly physically checking things, such as doors being locked or switches being off.
Thinking specific thoughts to “undo” a bad thought or reviewing something in your mind to make sure it’s okay.
Excessive hand washing or showering to remove perceived contamination or achieve a sense of feeling right or clean.
Asking others repeatedly to ensure things are okay.
Using a “good” thought to neutralise a “bad” thought.
Buying or failing to discard useless items, collecting excessively.
Over-attending to details of an event or person to mentally store it for safekeeping.
Repeating behaviours to make th
