Toni Hyneman was considering leaving therapy behind. Then she found NOCD
Toni Hyneman,MS, LPC wasn’t looking for a new specialty. She was at the point where she wondered whether she wanted to continue practicing therapy at all.
For much of her career, Hyneman worked with adolescents facing extraordinarily difficult circumstances. “I loved working with my teens,” she says. “But sometimes the system around the work could be tough.”
As she was considering transitioning to a different field, she attended a continuing education course that would change the direction of her career.
The virtual training that changed her direction.
That course was on exposure and response prevention (ERP) led in part by NOCD Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Patrick McGrath. She knew little about ERP at the time, but the virtual training immediately caught her attention.
“I wanted to figure out where he worked because I was like, I want to work wherever he works!”
It wasn’t only the clinical content that stood out. Hyneman appreciated McGrath’s authenticity and saw something in NOCD that felt like it might fit her, too.
“It made me feel like this might be a place where, not just in terms of clinical practice, it would fit me, but in terms of my personality, what might be considered an asset in some ways.”
She applied. When she didn’t hear back, she applied again when another position opened. Three years later, she’s still here.
Learning OCD in a completely new way
Hyneman is candid about how much she still had to learn when she joined NOCD.
“I didn’t have the best grasp of either of those things,” she says of OCD and ERP.
Through NOCD’s training, she developed a deeper understanding of OCD than she’d encountered in graduate school, including its different subtypes, mental compulsions, and the ego-dystonic nature of intrusive thoughts.
“Just learning so much about OCD, so much more than I learned in grad school.”
That knowledge gave Hyneman a new way to understand people whose symptoms might otherwise be misunderstood, and the tools to help.
Seeing the difference she’s making
One of the things Hyneman loves most about NOCD is something she didn’t expect: the data.
“Man, I love the metrics.”
A statistics minor in college, Hyneman was drawn to seeing clinical outcomes, treatment adherence, and Member progress in concrete terms.
“It’s awesome to get to see what you were doing represented in numbers and something that feels more tangible than just, like, I guess they’re feeling better.”
It was a striking contrast to earlier roles, where knowing whether treatment was working could be much harder.
“We always described it as like throwing paint at the wall. We have no idea that anything that we’re doing is gonna help at any point.” At NOCD, she says, “This is completely different.”
Finding the support to stay
Just as important has been knowing she doesn’t have to do the work alone.
“There has yet to be a day where I was like, I hate coming to work. There’s yet to be a day where I felt like I didn’t know if I was helping anybody. And there’s yet to be a day where I felt like I was on my own if I needed support.”
Hyneman points to her clinical manager as one example. When a family emergency arose minutes before a session, Hyneman could call her manager directly, who stepped in and handled the details so Hyneman could focus on her family.
“It was just great to be able to connect with her and have her support me.”
That combination of support and visible impact ultimately changed Hyneman’s mind about leaving therapy. Today, one of her favorite parts of the job is meeting a new Member for the first time. They may arrive distressed and uncertain about what comes next. Hyneman is often smiling because she already sees the possibilities ahead.
“I’m really sorry because in the first sessions you are miserable and I’m over here smiling. But it’s because I can already see all the ways that your life is gonna be different just from making that phone call.”
For Hyneman, that’s the kind of impact she was looking for when she almost left therapy, and the kind NOCD therapists have the opportunity to make every single day.
Looking to make an impact like Toni? Explore therapist opportunities at NOCD.
