Telephone and Online Therapy for OCD and Related Conditions

Because of this dearth of specialists able to provide effective care, the OCD Center of Los Angeles now offers distance therapy options to individuals across the US, as well as residents of certain other countries. In addition to our standard office-based individual and group therapy programs, we now provide both telephone and online therapy for OCD and related conditions. Our online therapy program utilizes web cameras which allow our therapists and clients to visually interact face-to-face in real time.

Telephone and online counseling are ideally suited to people in the following situations:

• Those who have a physical condition which limits their mobility;
• Those with psychological conditions which restrict travel;
• Those who live in areas distant from our offices who are unable to find specialized care near their home.

Our telephone and online therapy programs use the same treatment protocol as our traditional office-based counseling program. All of our treatment programs focus on using Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which has consistently been found by numerous research studies to be the most effective treatment for OCD and related anxiety based conditions. Among the CBT techniques we use are "Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), Cognitive Restructuring, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (MBCBT), and Habit Reversal Training (HRT).

Clients participating in our telephone or online therapy program receive a full clinical assessment, and meet for weekly scheduled telephone and/or online therapy sessions with one of our three professional staff therapists. Each client receives a treatment manual during their assessment session, and a second advanced manual later during the therapeutic process. All clients have the option of coming to our office for treatment if they decide that they would prefer face-to-face therapy.

Effectiveness of Telephone and Online Therapy

• A 2006 study at the University of Michigan found webcam-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to be consistently successful for the treatment for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Additionally, all study participants reported having a strong therapeutic alliance with their treatment provider, and a uniformly high level of satisfaction with the treatment.


• A 2000 study at the University of Quebec in Canada found significant improvement in study participants who received Cognitive Behavioral Therapy via webcam for Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia. Furthermore, researchers found that most participants reported that they established a strong therapeutic alliance with their therapist within one session.


• And a 2010 study at the renowned Karolinska Institute in Sweden found that clients receiving online Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Panic Disorder improved as much as those receiving traditional office-based CBT. Study participants reported that their improvement was strong following treatment, and that it remained strong six months later.

Legality of Telephone and Online Therapy

The issue of providing telephone and online counseling to clients in other US states and in other countries is more complicated. All staff therapists at the OCD Center of Los Angeles are licensed or registered to practice in the State of California. In terms of providing counseling to residents of other US states, the key issue is the law of the state in which the client lives. While there are currently no applicable federal or California state laws explicitly regulating or prohibiting teletherapy across state lines, every state in the US has its own specific laws regulating the practice of psychotherapy.  In every US state, those laws limit the practice of psychotherapy to clinicians licensed and/or registered in that specific state. As a result, the OCD Center of Los Angeles is currently only able to provide telephone and online counseling to individuals in states which are willing to provide our staff therapists with temporary licenses. It is worth noting that many states provide temporary licenses so that we can provide counseling to residents of those states..  

Treatment of clients in other countries is less restricted legally. The great majority of other countries do not regulate the practice of counseling and/or psychotherapy. As such, our staff therapists may legally treat clients in the following countries:

• Canada
  
• United Kingdom
• Ireland
• Australia
• Belgium
• Denmark
• Greece
• Norway
• Portugal
• Spain

Many other countries not listed here have no regulations restricting counseling and psychotherapy. If you live in a country not listed above, please email us at director@ocdla.com to further discuss treatment options available to you through our center.

The OCD Center of Los Angeles is a private, outpatient clinic specializing in the treatment of OCD and related conditions. We have four therapists on staff, all of whom specialize in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and related anxiety conditions. We treat adults, adolescents, and children, and offer services six days a week, including evening and Saturday appointments. You can learn more about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), related conditions we treat, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), our center, and our approach to treatment on our website at www.ocdla.com.

If you would like more information regarding telephone or internet based therapy, or would like to schedule an assessment for treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) or a related anxiety-based condition, you can call the OCD Center of Los Angeles at (310) 335-5443, or click here to email us. We request that individuals in other countries seeking online therapy initially contact us via email.