GARWOOD, NJ — OCD NJ, an Affiliate of the International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation, will host its 17th Annual Conference on Sunday, March 5, 2017, at The Westwood in Garwood, NJ. Dr. Carol Hevia will present, “Killing your mom, going to hell, sex with a camel, and more: Treating OCD obsessions that generate guilt, shame and disgust.” This program is designed for both professionals and non-professionals and has been approved for four continuing education credits. Registration fees include a continental breakfast and lunch. One can register online at www.ocdnj.org.
Carol Hevia, Psy.D has been working for 20 years with children, teens and adults who suffer from OCD. Since 2005 Dr. Hevia has served as an Assistant Psychologist on the clinical staff of the OCD Institute at Mclean Hospital, part of Massachusetts General Hospital, considered by many to be one of the top inpatient OCD treatment centers in the world. She has made dozens of presentations over the years specifically on the topic which she will be covering at our annual conference. She is a licensed psychologist in Massachusetts, Florida, and Arizona.
During the interactive, multimedia presentation, Dr. Hevia will discuss how harm and sexual obsessions are difficult to treat due to the extreme shame and disgust that sufferers feel about merely having these thoughts. It is challenging to get patients to even disclose the details of their obsessions, let alone get them to engage in the aversive ERPs. This talk will give strategies to decrease shame and increase self-disclosure, motivational strategies to get patients willing to take necessary risks to improve, cover psycho-educational talking points to move the patient through treatment, imaginal script writing, integrating “in vivo” components with imaginal consequences, cognitive strategies and experiential exercises to help address pathological guilt, obsessions about malevolent intent, “the evil meter”, possibilities versus probabilities, and “killing off the therapist”. Other related issues include; behavioral urges and sexual responsiveness in intrusive thoughts, moral disgust, the effect on relationships, and interruption of developmental tasks in OCD.
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The second part of the program, entitled, “Living with OCD” will consist of a panel of those affected by OCD, who will each briefly speak about their experience. This will be followed by a question and answer session. The panel will be moderated by Allen H. Weg, EdD, President of OCD NJ. Dr. Weg is President of OCD New Jersey, an Affiliate of the International OCD Foundation. Dr. Weg is a New Jersey licensed psychologist and Founder and Executive Director of Stress and Anxiety Services of New Jersey, LLC, an independent clinic with locations in East Brunswick and Springfield, New Jersey. He and his associates specialize in the cognitive behavioral treatment of anxiety disorders and OCD-related spectrum disorders for children, adolescents and adults.
OCD NJ is a non-profit organization and an Affiliate of the International OCD Foundation. OCD NJ is committed to educating the community about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), offering support to sufferers and their families and supporting research. OCD NJ hosts quarterly meetings in central NJ, which are free and open to the public, and feature OCD experts as the guest speakers. For more information on OCD NJ, go to www.ocdnj.org.