Compulsions and Addictions

Many people are seeking to break free from different compulsive behaviors and thoughts that are obsessive. They have worked hard but have found little relief.

Compulsions take many forms. They can involve binge eating, purging, cutting and self-harm, excessive shopping or cluttering. Pornography addiction is another compulsive behavior many wish to eliminate.

Sometimes true obsessive compulsive disorder is present where personal rituals have emerged to reduce intolerable anxiety. This can become a severely debilitating condition.

Treating clients with unwanted compulsions involves locating the original events that brought them on and reprocessing those memories to eliminate the distress. Untruths are replaced with truths and a compassionate view of themselves is gained. This gives people the ability to begin to manage the compulsions.

Next we want to reduce the strength of the urge to perform the compulsion. EMDR, TFT and other energy therapies are especially good at this. We will work in the office with the various triggers that provoke the unwanted action.