Amy Seager

Ever since I can remember, I’ve had a great deal of empathy for anyone experiencing difficulty and suffering. I was a kid who was friends with anyone, no matter what social group they were in.

I was working in community mental health when I had a client who came to me with intense anxiety and intrusive thoughts that were causing him a great deal of suffering. He had been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. I believed there was something else going on, but I didn’t know a lot about OCD at the time. I did some research and realized that because his obsessive thoughts didn't fit the general idea of how OCD “should” present, he'd been misdiagnosed for years. After that, I saw a few more people who had been misdiagnosed, and I saw the intense suffering and shame this disorder had caused them. I knew OCD was a sneaky, deceitful gremlin that was holding people hostage and I wanted to join the fight to eradicate it.

I’ve worked a great deal with adults and children who've experienced acute episodes of trauma or accumulative trauma. I’ve used a mixture of psychoanalysis and imagery rescripting and reprocessing therapy, which is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy.

You will not be fighting this battle alone. I will be supporting you by coaching, encouraging, and cheering you on. I can’t promise it will be easy, but I have confidence that you can do it.

I will not be shocked or disgusted by the thoughts OCD pushes on you. OCD uses shame and fear to keep you silent and suffering. Quite often, just speaking the thoughts out loud takes some of their power away.