Lourdes De Las Heras Kuhn

I was 6 years old when I sat at the table where my mother was chatting with a woman that captivated my attention. She was eloquent and spoke of things that are usually hard to capture—thoughts and emotions. Fast forward a few years: I was often trusted by my peers with deeply personal stories of pain and sorrow. Fascinated by psychoanalysis in college, I started my own therapeutic process with an analyst. I learned about the craft as I learned more about myself. Informed by all of this, I decided to become a therapist.

I decided to specialize in OCD because of my previous experience working with exposure-based procedures. I first guided exposures in an inpatient psychiatric hospital as part of my training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). I witnessed the effectiveness of exposures while working with women who struggled with high sensitivity, high reactivity, and slow return to emotional baseline. I decided to further my understanding of OCD and its impact on people’s well-being.

Working in research and hospital settings gave me the opportunity to work with women and men struggling with substance abuse, mood disorders, and personality disorders. As a social worker in New York, I was privileged to work with the Latinx community.

Doing ERP is a commitment and an investment. It's hard, but it's not unlike other hard things you’ve done in your life. We’ll make room for us to sit with the whole spectrum of emotions, whether there are tears, laughter, frustration, hopelessness, or pride. As we work together, you’ll realize that the skills you're learning to cope with OCD are transferable and will enhance other areas of your life.

Put that fear into words. Let me know how you're feeling. Talking about your thoughts with me will be your first exposure. Avoidance perpetuates obsessions, and I don't recommend it. Telling me how you're feeling and what you're thinking will help us understand how your mind works, how your body's reacting, and will identify how your choices are serving you.