Map the loop
We name your specific obsessions, the compulsions that follow, and what you avoid. Seeing the loop clearly is the first step to interrupting it.
Treatments · OCD therapy
OCD therapy that works with the loop, not against you.
In-person psychotherapy in Mississauga and online across Ontario for adults living with OCD, anchored in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. The work is collaborative, and you set the pace. Where formal Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is the right fit, we are glad to refer.
- Fee
- $160 to $180 · 50-minute individual session
- Free consultation
- 15 minutes, no charge
- Format
- In-person in Mississauga, or secure online video via Jane
- Modalities
- ACT, CBT, attachment-based, trauma-informed
- Clinicians
- Katelyn Matias, RP, CRPO #10340, Daniella Simas Medeiros, RP (Qualifying), CRPO #19387
- Receipts
- Provided for extended-health reimbursement · HST-exempt
About OCD therapy at Anchor & Bloom.
OCD therapy at Anchor & Bloom is in-person psychotherapy in Mississauga and online across Ontario for adults who are living with obsessions and compulsions, intrusive thoughts, and the exhausting cycle of doing something to make an unwanted thought or feeling go away. Sessions are offered by Registered Psychotherapists using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, with attention to the anxiety, rumination, and distress that surround OCD.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is the front-line approach for OCD. Anchor & Bloom does not currently offer formal ERP; if that is the right fit for you, we are glad to refer to a clinician or program that specializes in it. The work we do offer is collaborative and paced. We build the steps together, and you stay in control of how fast we move.
How therapy helps
Less about removing the thoughts, more about changing your response.
Through OCD therapy, you can:
- Better understand the OCD cycle and how it operates
- Reduce the impact of intrusive thoughts and fears
- Build tolerance for uncertainty and discomfort
- Develop healthier responses to anxiety
- Decrease compulsive behaviours and reassurance-seeking
- Improve confidence and self-trust
- Reconnect with the activities, relationships, and experiences that matter most to you
Change the response
Using ACT and CBT, you learn to notice the urge to perform a compulsion or seek reassurance and practise a different response, in session and between sessions, so the brain can learn something new.
Make room for uncertainty
ACT and CBT skills help you tolerate discomfort and doubt rather than chasing certainty, so OCD has less to feed on.
Learn more
Want the full picture?
Everything below is optional. Open any section to go deeper on how OCD therapy works at Anchor & Bloom, who it fits, and what changes over time.
What OCD can feel like
The shapes OCD takes.
A thought arrives that you do not want, and it feels urgent and wrong. To make the discomfort stop, you do something: wash, check, count, pray, re-read, ask for reassurance, or run the worry through your mind one more time. The relief is real, and it is brief. Then the cycle starts again.
OCD is not about being tidy or liking things organized. It is a loop between intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and the behaviours or mental acts used to neutralize them (compulsions). The compulsion works in the short term, which is exactly why it is so hard to stop.
Common patterns clients describe in early sessions:
- Intrusive thoughts that feel disturbing, repugnant, or out of character, and the fear of what they might mean
- Checking locks, appliances, messages, or your own body, often more than once
- Contamination fears and washing or cleaning that takes far longer than it should
- A need for things to feel "just right" before you can move on
- Reassurance-seeking from people, searches, or your own memory
- Rumination and mental review that can consume hours without anyone noticing
Contamination and washing
Fear of germs, illness, chemicals, or feeling dirty in a way that does not lift with one wash. Cleaning, hand-washing, showering, and avoiding "contaminated" objects or places can take over large parts of the day.
Checking
Repeatedly checking locks, the stove, the door, emails, or your own actions to make sure nothing bad happened or will happen. The doubt returns soon after the check, which is what keeps the loop going.
Harm and intrusive thoughts
Unwanted thoughts about hurting yourself or others, or thoughts that feel violent, sexual, or blasphemous. These thoughts are distressing precisely because they clash with your values. Having them does not mean you want to act on them.
Symmetry and "just right"
A pull toward order, evenness, or symmetry, or a feeling that something is not quite complete. Arranging, repeating, or redoing actions until they feel right, sometimes with no specific feared outcome attached.
Pure-O and mental rituals
OCD that looks invisible from the outside because the compulsions are mental: reviewing, analyzing, silently reassuring, praying, or arguing with the thought. People with Pure-O often spend years not realizing it is OCD.
Relationship and responsibility themes
Obsessions about whether a relationship is right, whether you are a good person, or whether you are responsible for something going wrong. The compulsion is often endless analysis and reassurance-seeking rather than a visible behaviour.
Rumination
Hours lost to mentally chewing on a question that never resolves. Rumination can feel like problem-solving, but in OCD it functions as a compulsion: a way to chase certainty that the brain cannot actually deliver.
The arc of the work
How sessions are structured.
Most clients move through a general arc, though no two courses of therapy look exactly the same. The phase boundaries below are illustrative, a way to picture how the work tends to unfold, not a fixed sequence. Some people stay longer in one phase. Some return to an earlier one. Pace is set collaboratively, and revisited often.
Mapping the loop.
The first few sessions are about understanding your specific OCD: which obsessions show up, which compulsions follow, and what you avoid. We explain how the loop works and how our ACT and CBT-informed approach interrupts it, so it makes sense before we start. Nothing is rushed, and you are never asked to commit to anything you do not understand.
Changing the response.
The core of the work. Using ACT and CBT, we work on noticing the urge to perform a compulsion or seek reassurance and choosing a different response, in session and between sessions. These skills help you make room for discomfort and uncertainty rather than fighting them, so OCD has less to feed on.
Maintaining gains.
Consolidating what you have learned and planning for the long run. We work on relapse prevention, how to respond when OCD tries a new theme, and how to keep choosing a different response on your own. We also name what signs would be worth returning for, so you leave with a plan rather than just a feeling.
About the front-line approach
Exposure and Response Prevention: what it is, and where we fit.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is the most studied psychotherapy for OCD and is considered a first-line, evidence-informed approach. It was developed specifically for the OCD loop. We want to be clear and honest about it, and about what we do and do not provide.
Anchor & Bloom does not currently offer formal ERP. If that is the right fit for you, we are glad to refer to a clinician or program that specializes in it.
Here is what ERP involves, described plainly so you can recognize it. OCD survives on a deal: an obsession creates distress, a compulsion relieves it, and the brain learns that the compulsion is necessary. ERP breaks that deal. A person deliberately approaches the trigger (the exposure) and chooses not to perform the usual compulsion or reassurance (the response prevention). The distress rises, and then, given time and repetition, it settles on its own. Many people find they become more able to tolerate the uncertainty and to respond differently to the feared outcome. Formal ERP is graded and structured, built around a hierarchy and paced step by step.
What we do provide is support around the OCD itself. Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, we work with the anxiety, rumination, and distress that come with OCD. ACT helps you make room for discomfort and act on what matters, while CBT helps loosen the beliefs that keep the loop tight. This can stand on its own for some people, sit alongside a referral for formal ERP, or help you decide what kind of support fits best. We will be straight with you about that, and we will not overstate what any single approach can promise.
Fit matters
Who this fits, who it doesn't.
A good fit for
- Adults with mild to moderate OCD who can engage in weekly outpatient psychotherapy
- Contamination, checking, symmetry, and harm or intrusive-thought themes
- Pure-O patterns built around mental rituals and rumination
- OCD layered with anxiety, see also anxiety therapy
- People who want a structured, skills-based approach with practice between sessions
- OCD alongside a need for nervous-system support, see also nervous system regulation
Not the right primary fit for
- Acute crisis, please use the crisis resources listed on our contact page
- Active suicidal ideation requiring stabilization or psychiatric care
- Severe OCD that needs formal or intensive ERP, a higher level of care, or is significantly impairing day-to-day functioning, which is often better served by a specialized OCD program. If that is the case, we will say so and help you find an appropriate referral.
- Conditions that require medication management or psychiatric assessment as the main intervention
If you are unsure whether outpatient OCD therapy is the right next step, the free 15-minute consultation is a good place to ask, and to talk through other options if it is not.
A typical course
What sessions look like.
- First session. An hour to map your OCD, talk about what you would like therapy to help with, and explain our approach. You ask questions; we share how we work, and we talk through a referral for formal ERP if that is the right fit.
- Following sessions. A mix of working with intrusive thoughts and compulsions using ACT and CBT, and agreed-upon practice between sessions. Pace is yours to set.
- Modalities used. ACT and CBT as the basis, with trauma-informed and attachment-based support, blended around your needs. We refer for formal ERP where it fits.
- Frequency. Weekly is common, especially in the early, more active phase. Many clients move to biweekly as gains hold. Some need less, some need more.
- Format. In-person sessions in Mississauga, or online video through Jane, a PHIPA-compliant Canadian platform.
- Length. Usually 50 minutes.
Signs the work is taking
Common changes clients may notice as therapy progresses.
Progress in OCD work is rarely the disappearance of intrusive thoughts. It looks more like the thoughts losing their grip, and the compulsions losing their pull. Some of the shifts clients tend to notice, in their own words:
- An intrusive thought arrives, and you notice you do not have to do anything about it.
- The urge to check or wash still shows up, but you can let it pass without acting on it.
- Time spent on rituals and rumination shrinks, and the hours come back to you.
- You ask for reassurance less, and tolerate not knowing for sure.
- You re-enter situations or places you had been avoiding.
- When OCD tries a new theme, you recognize it as the same old loop rather than a new emergency.
Therapy does not aim to guarantee that the thoughts never return. The aim is a different relationship with them, one where an intrusive thought is just a thought rather than a command.
What we draw from
Modalities we use.
Our OCD work is grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, supported by other evidence-informed frames. Below are the approaches that most often come into play with OCD specifically. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is the front-line approach for OCD; Anchor & Bloom does not currently offer formal ERP, and we are glad to refer where it is the right fit.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Less about arguing with intrusive thoughts, more about making room for discomfort and acting on what matters. ACT supports willingness to sit with uncertainty rather than chasing certainty.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Working with the beliefs that keep OCD tight, an inflated sense of responsibility, overestimating threat, and the need for certainty. CBT helps loosen the appraisals that give intrusive thoughts their weight.
Mindfulness-based skills
Practices for noticing thoughts without immediately reacting to them. Helpful for recognizing an intrusive thought as a passing mental event rather than a fact that demands a response.
Relapse prevention
Building a plan for the long run: how to keep responding differently to the loop, how to spot OCD when it switches themes, and what to do early so a flare does not become a full return.
Nervous-system-informed pacing
Attention to what the body is doing as distress rises, so the work stays within a range you can tolerate. Pacing keeps the work challenging without tipping into overwhelm.
For OCD that overlaps significantly with anxiety, seeanxiety therapy. For support settling a reactive nervous system, seenervous system regulation.
Who offers this
Clinicians who work with OCD.
Katelyn Matias, RP
Registered Psychotherapist, CRPO #10340
Founder of Anchor & Bloom. Collaborative OCD work for adults using ACT and CBT to support the anxiety, rumination, and distress around OCD, with attention to pacing and the nervous system.
About KatelynDaniella Simas Medeiros, RP (Qualifying)
Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), CRPO #19387
Affirming OCD work for adults, neurodivergent clients, and people in high-pressure roles. Uses ACT, CBT, and mindfulness to work with intrusive thoughts and anxiety, with practice between sessions.
About DaniellaCommon questions about OCD therapy.
What kind of OCD does therapy at Anchor & Bloom help with?
We work with common presentations of OCD, including contamination fears, checking, symmetry and "just right" feelings, intrusive thoughts about harm, and Pure-O patterns built around mental rituals and rumination. We do not diagnose, and we do not provide intensive or higher levels of care. Severe, significantly impairing OCD may be better served by a specialized program, and we will say so.
What is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)?
ERP is the front-line, evidence-informed approach for OCD. In ERP, a person gradually and deliberately approaches the situations or thoughts that trigger obsessions, while practising not performing the compulsion or reassurance that usually follows. Over time, many people find they become more able to tolerate the uncertainty and to respond differently to the feared outcome. Anchor & Bloom does not currently offer formal ERP; if that is the right fit for you, we are glad to refer to a clinician or program that specializes in it. Our own OCD work draws on ACT and CBT to support the anxiety, rumination, and distress that come with OCD.
Do you offer medication for OCD?
No. Registered Psychotherapists in Ontario do not prescribe medication. Many people with OCD work with both a psychotherapist and a physician or psychiatrist. If medication is part of the conversation, we collaborate with your prescriber while we focus on the psychotherapy side.
Is online therapy effective for OCD?
Research from organizations such as the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health supports psychotherapy for OCD, and it can be delivered effectively over secure video for many adults. Online work also lets us focus on the real environments where OCD shows up, such as your own kitchen, bathroom, or front door, while we use ACT and CBT to work with the anxiety and rumination that surround it.
Does therapy at Anchor & Bloom force me to face my worst fears all at once?
No. Our work is collaborative and paced, and nothing happens without your agreement. We use ACT and CBT to help you build tolerance for uncertainty and respond differently to intrusive thoughts, and you stay in control of how we move. Where formal, graded ERP is the right fit, we are glad to refer to a clinician or program that specializes in it.
How much do sessions cost and is OCD therapy covered by insurance?
Individual sessions are $160 to $180. Most extended health benefit plans through Canadian employers cover Registered Psychotherapist services. Confirm with your insurer before booking. Psychotherapy is exempt from GST/HST as of June 2024.
For plan-by-plan coverage details, direct billing notes, and how to submit a claim, see Fees & Insurance.
Further reading
Trusted Canadian resources.
For general information on OCD and its treatment, theCentre for Addiction and Mental Health and theCanadian Mental Health Association are good starting points.
For information on the regulation of psychotherapists in Ontario, see theCollege of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario.
Why Anchor & Bloom
How we work, and what to expect.
OCD affects each person differently, so the work is personalized. Drawing from evidence-informed and trauma-informed approaches, treatment may incorporate Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Psychodynamic therapy, Solution-Focused therapy, somatic therapy, attachment-based work, mindfulness, and nervous system regulation. Where formal Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), the front-line approach for OCD, is the right fit, we are glad to refer.
- Personalized treatment tailored to your needs and goals
- Compassionate, collaborative, and non-judgmental care
- Trauma-informed and relationship-focused approach
- Practical tools that support meaningful change
- Virtual therapy available across Ontario
- In-person therapy available in Mississauga
Start with a free conversation.
A 15-minute consultation is a low-stakes way to ask questions and see if the fit feels right.
Online therapy across Ontario
Sessions are virtual province-wide, with local support for:
Toronto · Mississauga · Oakville · Burlington · Hamilton