Counselling for
anxiety & OCD
If worry, intrusive thoughts or compulsions are taking over your day, I can help you understand what keeps the pattern going. We can work together on ways to respond differently, at a pace you can manage.
What anxiety and OCD can feel like
Experiences vary from person to person. You may recognise some of these, or your experience may look quite different.
Constant worry & overthinking
Physical tension, restlessness or panic
Difficulty sleeping or relaxing
Intrusive thoughts or mental images
Compulsions, checking or avoidance
Impact on work, relationships or daily life
Making sense
of the pattern
Anxiety often becomes stronger through a cycle of threat, short-term relief and learning. Therapy can help you notice the pattern earlier and respond with more flexibility.
An illustrative pattern. Not every anxious experience follows the same cycle.
Understanding, experimenting and changing
Understanding the cycle
We can identify triggers, interpretations, body responses and the strategies you use to feel safer.
Working with uncertainty
For OCD and some anxiety difficulties, this may include principles from Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), used collaboratively and at a manageable pace.
Emotional regulation
Grounding, attention and nervous-system regulation can help you respond to activation without needing to eliminate every uncomfortable feeling.
Looking beneath the pattern
An integrative approach also makes room for relationships, shame, past experiences, identity and the personal meaning of anxiety.
Intrusive thoughts are not the same as intentions
OCD can involve unwanted thoughts, images, doubts or urges that feel deeply significant. Compulsions may be visible behaviours, such as checking, or internal processes such as reviewing, neutralising or seeking certainty.
The difficulty is often not the presence of the thought itself, but the meaning attached to it and the repeated attempts to remove uncertainty.
More room for everyday life
Less ruled by avoidance
Gradually doing more of what matters, even when uncertainty is present.
A different response to thoughts
Thoughts can still arrive without automatically needing an answer, ritual or reassurance.
Greater tolerance of uncertainty
Building confidence in your ability to cope without having to make everything feel certain.
More choice in how you respond
Noticing the cycle earlier and creating a pause between anxiety and action.
Understanding anxiety in more depth
A practical article on causes, therapy and techniques, with a new explanation of anxiety and the nervous system.
What causes anxiety
Explore this topic →02 · READ THE ARTICLEHow can therapy help
Explore this topic →03 · READ THE ARTICLEExposure and Response Prevention
Explore this topic →04 · READ THE ARTICLERelaxation Techniques
Explore this topic →05 · READ THE ARTICLEBreathing Techniques
Explore this topic →06 · READ THE ARTICLEGrounding Techniques
Explore this topic →07 · READ THE ARTICLEAnxiety and the Nervous System
Explore this topic →Evidence-based ideas, used within a human relationship
My work is integrative rather than tied to a single method. Depending on what you need, therapy may draw on cognitive and behavioural approaches, ERP principles for OCD, compassion-focused work, psychodynamic understanding and nervous-system regulation.
Useful independent information is available from NHS guidance on OCD treatment and BACP information about therapy.
You do not need to have everything worked out before getting in touch.
In person in North London or online across the UK · 50-minute sessions
Explore connected experiences
Self-worth, shame and the pressure of everyday demands can be part of the wider picture. These pages offer different ways to understand what is happening.