Paulina Stephens

She/Her/Hers

Licensed Therapist, LCPC

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About

It’s important that you know what’s going on with your OCD while you work to overcome it. Information is empowering. Learning why intrusive thoughts occur and why you practice compulsions (for example) is just as important as learning how to respond to your thoughts in a healthy way. You must understand why the tools you’re being taught are so useful. It can also help you explain yourself to others, which can be a challenge in itself. Members describe me as empathetic and easy-going. I enjoy helping people learn how to challenge themselves while having fun along the way because you need to be positive throughout a process that can be quite difficult to go through. Together, we’ll walk on a path that leads you to feel more like your real self.

I am very excited to work with you in therapy. We will find a way to challenge your intrusive thoughts, accept them, and work through them to make you feel better.

NOCD therapists are trained by our world-renowned clinical leadership team.

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Insurance Coverages

United Healthcare / Optum
Humana
Cigna
Aetna

States

Illinois

Indiana

What our members say about
Paulina Stephens

S.M.

Mar 21, 2023

Very nice and informative. Made the process easy!

V.C.

Mar 01, 2023

Paulina has been a God send in helping me confront OCD for what it is. I am so thankful!

T.D.

Feb 28, 2023

I really feel like Paulina gets what my specific ocd is about & how to help me with it. Sometimes it feels like I am stumbling all around while trying to express myself about it. But she understands it & is able to see into the core parts that need to be worked on. Today was a really good session. I was able to be more fully present & not in my head. I felt good today & I felt good about my session. I felt better in myself during session than I have in a while.

T.D.

Feb 22, 2023

I’m getting there. I can do this. I‘ve got it. Paulina is a great therapist. I would recommend her to anyone who is struggling with OCD. I am ready to get back to it, work the erp exercises & take my life back. It’s hard to let go of what you know. It’s harder to allow yourself to sit with distress & take no action to make yourself feel better & be calmer. It’s Hardest, though, to keep living the way that I always have. That way I have been living, the way that I have always lived for all of my life is with OCD calling all of the shots & causing so much inner turmoil within me. I can do this. We all can do this. Keep trying. Keep getting back up each & every time. Never give up. We can all do this. It is worth it. We are worth it.

V.C.

Feb 22, 2023

My sessions have gone great and are really helping me.

T.D.

Jan 17, 2023

Paulina is great. Her knowledge of OCD is so vast. You can see that she truly wants to help people get to recovery with their ocd. Paulina has given me the tools i need to get to recovery. I am currently in the midst of the hardest exposure I have take on yet. Right now it doesn’t feel very good. I don’t feel very good. With the tools I have I know I can do this. And if I can do this, my hardest exposure to date, then I can do anything.

T.D.

Jan 04, 2023

Session was fine. Change is just hard. And even though I have been on this journey for almost a year now, I still find change to be hard & it scares me at first, for a bit, until I get more used to it. I’m still going to be putting one foot in front of the other & keep going. Even if I am a little scared in the meantime. I’m going to hear what my ocd is telling me & do my best to not respond, not talk back to it, not allow it to control me. I’m going to just keep going on. Doing the things that are important to me. Loving my life for me. I’ve got this even when i struggle to think I have. Change is just hard. It probably always will be. I can still do it though, even if & when it feels hard. I’m not sure why this decrease In session time is being so hard & the last wasn’t as difficult. If I wasn’t ready it wouldn’t be happening. My ocd wants me to question my readiness & my ability to handle it though. It wants me to believe that I can’t do it & that I won’t do good with this change. So I’m going to hear what my ocd is saying, & then I’m going to keep on going. Becuase that is how I get there.

T.D.

Dec 20, 2022

Paulina has helped me learn so much about OCD in general & about my own OCD & how that plays out in my everyday life with the things that tend to trigger my compulsions. Now that I have a pretty good grasp of the basics of ocd & some skills to help, Paulina has been attempting to help me with gaining some confidence in trusting myself with this & that I can do this. No matter what the theme, or thought, feelings that may come up. I am growing in all of this & making strides forwards.

K.B.

Dec 08, 2022

She helps me feel more balanced

T.D.

Dec 07, 2022

Paulina is great! I would highly Recommend her to others struggling with ocd. She has been so patient with me & understanding, while also bringing me back to focusing on my exercises when needed. I am not very trusting & it takes me time, sometimes quite a bit of time, to feel comfortable enough with someone to open up completely. This week I was able to share something that I had not previously acknowledged was a part of my compulsions & now I have a plan to begin to work on it more.

T.D.

Nov 29, 2022

Paulina was great at helping me refocus today. With a gentle reminder to go easier on myself & remember how important it is the way that I talk to myself & the way that I look at myself. That is hard to do at times but I will keep working on it. I am so thankful to NOCD for this resource dedicated to ocd therapy & recovery. I am also thankful for Paulina’s wealth of knowledge about ocd & being supportive, encouraging & understanding, while also keeping me looking forward, recognizing my progress & seeing that I am getting there. Even on the rougher days that come along on the journey.

J.M.

Nov 17, 2022

Might be finishing up with treatment now. So grateful for Paulina Stephens!

K.B.

Nov 14, 2022

I feel that Paulina hears me and understands hopes to Make me feel better and genuinely is happy for my improvement!

T.D.

Nov 01, 2022

I can do this! I can do this!

T.D.

Oct 25, 2022

Paulina is great! I was more tearful during session today & having a little more trouble with wanting to get into what was going on in my mind with my thoughts. She is always very kind when this happens with me, pointing out the progress i have made. That helps me not to stay stuck in the way I am feeling. For me it is not only the thoughts with my ocd but also the emotions/feelings that I am feeling that my ocd likes to exploit too, & make me think that I have to figure them out as well. Progress, not perfection.

T.D.

Oct 18, 2022

During my time with Paulina I have learned so much about OCD, both in general & how my ocd is specifically with me, & how to best work with it as such. She knows what she’s talking about with ocd. I am so glad that I found NOCD & decided to give it a shot. For 11 years I have done talk therapy & it never helped me in the long run. Thanks to NOCD & Paulina I am doing better. Not perfect, not healed, but better, & with hope to keep growing & learning more & more how to keep handling my ocd instead of letting it rule me & my life. If you are just starting out with erp, keep doing it. Keep coming back. It takes time & for some of us it take more time than others. It took me lots of time. You will get it & it will begin to make sense to you. One day it will start clicking & when it does, look out. You will make progress & you just keep going from there. Take it from me. I was slow to start with erp & in the beginning I thought I was never going to get it. But I did & now I’m doing even better than I thought I was possible. There are still more difficult days for me but now I know how to turn those around. Good luck all!

K.B.

Oct 14, 2022

I am getting lots of positive help and I’m seeing lots of benefits!

T.D.

Sep 28, 2022

I am so happy that I stuck it out in therapy. I am seeing more & more progress each week as I keep acknowledging that I see my ocd & what it is trying to do & then I do not follow along behind it. Sometimes it gets me still but I am getting stronger in sitting with how what it is saying makes me feel.

K.B.

Sep 27, 2022

After just a couple of so see that this is helping tremendously

T.D.

Sep 21, 2022

I really like my therapist. I believe that she has my best interest in mind when it comes to suggestions of exercises to try. Even when I’m not so sure that I want to do something right away. She listens & is encouraging but not overly reassuring-as one of my compulsions is reassurance seeking. She helps me to see my progress when I am having trouble seeing past the current, immediate discomfort I am feeling. I am thankful to have found NOCD when I got my OCD diagnosis this year after a decade of other therapists missing it.

T.D.

Aug 31, 2022

My therapist has been great at helping bring me back to the task at hand, my ocd work, while my depression was so bad over the last month. I have learned a lot about my OCD & how to not engage with it. It’s a work in progress. I certainly don’t do it all perfectly. No one would. But i get back up & I keep trying each time.

J.M.

Aug 25, 2022

I plan on doing my see check ins with Paulina Stephens for as long as possible. She’s helped me so much.

K.B.

Aug 15, 2022

Paulina is insightful and shows compassion and care with my daughter. She is moving at a comfortable pace for my daughter.

T.D.

Aug 09, 2022

I was inspired to paint after therapy today. Something my theorist was telling me about a bird & a branch. I found it very inspiring & wanted to give myself a visual reminder. Seriously, my therapist has been awesome at continuing to help me with my ocd, & bringing me back to that work, while I have been struggling more with my depression & have had trouble staying focused on the task at hand. My ocd work.

T.D.

Jul 26, 2022

I am making real progress! I have really started to put in the effort now to utilize my skills & do the erp exercises. The progress is really starting to show & I am seeing the difference between my ocd being in charge & when I am in charge of my ocd. It is a vast difference. A big thank you to my therapist for sticking in there with me until I got to this point of really working on my ocd.

T.D.

Jul 22, 2022

My therapist has been very supportive & encouraging while I have had some medication changes & other things happening lately. Finally I am feeling better now & I am ready & committed to doing the work to get me where I want to be with my ocd.

L.M.

Jun 30, 2022

My therapist Paulina has really helped me build awareness around my condition. I’ve learned skills to help me reduce my trich and anxiety.

T.D.

Jun 28, 2022

I am learning a lot about my ocd & I am really starting to get somewhere with it.

A.S.

Jun 27, 2022

I have silently suffered with OCD my whole life, I was diagnosed at 7 years old and am now 35. I'm so glad I found this app as it's changed my life. Paulina is my therapist and has been phenomenal, never making me feel abnormal or crazy and guiding my way through the sessions. My OCD is never going away but I now know the tools to combat it and keep it at bay and live a fulfilling life. I owe that to NOCD.

T.D.

May 25, 2022

My therapist is very good at helping me to see the ocd more clearly for what it is. Just thoughts, that I do not have to engage or take deeper meaning from. They are just thoughts. I am seeing better how the ocd changes it up a lot in order to keep getting to me so I will do the compulsions. Paulina is helping me see that. It’s hard doing the erp & it’s hard obsessing & doing the compulsions. Little steps of progress are still steps of progress all the same.

anonymous

Apr 29, 2022

My mind wanted to focus on the negative during session. Paulina is very good at keeping the focus on not perfection & in normalizing having times where the ocd is worse & that that is not a failure. I really like how she puts it as the ocd is throwing a tantrum to get me to do a compulsion. Like a two year old throwing a tantrum. I remember two years old tantrums from raising my kids & they are not logical or predictable. The tantrum just wants it’s way & will pull out all the stops in order to get it. I can see the ocd as being like that since I have started working on sitting with the thoughts, feelings & emotions that come up with it.

anonymous

Apr 07, 2022

Therapy was really good today. I was able to get back on track & back into doing the erp exercises again. My therapist does pretty well at keeping me focused & to the task at hand. She is positive, supportive, encouraging & helps me see when & how to go about taking those next steps when I ready.

anonymous

Apr 02, 2022

My therapist was wonderful in talking to me where I was & encouraging me to do what I needed to in order to get myself the help I needed while I was having a medication issue on the day I saw her. I like that Paulina is observant & willing to help me where I am when I was struggling with more than just my OCD.

anonymous

Mar 23, 2022

I was better able to understand the ocd. What it looks like in me. How it shows. This is the first appt where I really felt like I was getting it. I asked a question & we talked about that so I understood better.

anonymous

Mar 16, 2022

My therapist took the time to talk with me about the loss of my long time pet that happened the morning of my appt. Rather than just getting straight into the ERP, she took the time to meet me where I was at that moment in sadness over that loss. That meant a lot as I was trying so hard to avoid my feelings over it up to that point & the tears coming out the. helped.

anonymous

Mar 08, 2022

I left today’s appt feeling more encouraged. I have really been struggling with my diagnosis of ocd & my thoughts have been running rampant ever since. Starting therapy has given me hope, but also been pretty frustrating as my ocd thoughts tell me that I need to know every little thing right now & that if I don’t then it is a failure. Today my therapist helped me to look at that in a different, more positive structured way rather than the really negative one I had been seeing it in as a failure. So I am back to being more hopeful again. That it is possible for me to get there & be able to better navigate through my ocd as it comes up.

anonymous

Mar 08, 2022

Paulina is always so helpful and really cares how I’m doing. She gets excited to see when my scores are improving. She’s helped me a lot.

anonymous

Feb 17, 2022

I’m surprised that I am as calm as I am right now after a therapy session. That is usually something that causes my thoughts to run rampant in a full blown ocd episode. My first obsession, triggers & compulsions have been identified in the hierarchy & I think that my therapist explained everything well for how to go about my first exposure to start working on.

anonymous

Feb 03, 2022

I feel like this might really be the missing piece of the puzzle that has been going on, unrecognized as OCD, for years. Having hope for change is difficult for me as I have been the way I am for so long, without knowing what it was, that getting better is like a dream that you don’t know if it is true or not. Could I actually get better now? Is this the missing piece of the puzzle? Once my OCD is treated will that help me more with my depression too? Will I finally be able to move past the trauma & be able to stay there then? So many questions. But there is some hope also.

anonymous

Jan 24, 2022

Paulina does an excellent job talking to my daughter and gives her space to be the child that she is. I have seen massive improvements in our work together.

anonymous

Jan 24, 2022

I was a little nervous for my first appointment. A new therapist again. It is always hard for me to feel like I can really open up & trust someone in the beginning. It takes me time. I think I did okay though. I just want to get to where I feel better in my own mind. Being who I am without all the fear & anxiety running things. To stay present with people & in situations is my goal that I want to get to.

anonymous

Jan 11, 2022

Paulina has helped me so much already.

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