Building OCD Competency
A 6-Week Clinical Skills Program for Mental Health Clinicians
Helping clients with OCD requires more than following a manual. It requires confidence, precision, and an understanding of the lived experience of OCD. This immersive training teaches you exactly how to assess, conceptualize, and treat OCD using evidence-based ERP and advanced Rumination-Focused ERP principles.
What This Training Is
A six-week, hands-on clinical training designed to help you treat OCD with clarity, skill, and confidence.
Participants learn through teaching, supervision-style guidance, in-session practice, and case demonstrations—led by an experienced psychotherapist and faculty member with McMaster University’s Department of Psychiatry & Behavioural Neurosciences.
This program is ideal for clinicians who want to feel more grounded, more competent, and more effective when treating OCD.
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Learn how OCD actually shows up in the therapy room
Identify theme-based presentations and common client language
Build credibility and rapport with clients who feel misunderstood
Understand the lived experience and nuance behind intrusive thoughts
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Conversational Competence: How to Talk About OCD
Ask targeted questions that uncover hidden compulsions
Normalize symptoms without minimizing clinical severity
Frame ERP in ways that reduce fear and increase buy-in
Practice scripts and guided prompts for real-world conversations
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Design exposures using inhibitory learning—not habituation
Apply principles like expectancy violation and stimulus variability
Remove safety signals and deepen emotional learning
Use contexts, retrieval cues, and affect labelling to strengthen outcomes
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Identify subtle and often-missed rituals (mental checking, avoidance, reassurance)
Build personalized, creative exposure hierarchies
Coach clients through rumination and covert compulsions in real time
Maintain the collaborative, courageous “spirit” of ERP
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Navigate Pure-O and mental compulsions
Treat moral/scrupulosity, perinatal, existential, and health-focused OCD
Understand sensory-based “not-just-right” experiences
Work effectively with perfectionism, overcontrol, and identity-based fears
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Conceptualize rumination as a compulsive behaviour
Help clients identify and disengage from mental loops
Address the emotional, psychodynamic, and avoidance functions of rumination
Integrate RF-ERP to promote agency, emotional flexibility, and choice
A clear, structured curriculum designed to build confidence, precision, and clinical fluency in OCD treatment.
What You’ll Learn
How the Training Works
This is a six-week program that runs for 1.5 hours per week, taught live and fully virtual. Each session includes case demonstrations, scripts and guided prompts, experiential practice, and supervision-style coaching so you can confidently apply what you’re learning in real time. The full program costs $300 CAD and provides 9 CE credits upon completion. The cohort is intentionally kept small to maximize practice, individualized feedback, and meaningful clinical growth.
Who This Training Is For
This training is designed for psychotherapists, social workers, psychologists, counsellors, and graduate trainees who want to build stronger competency in treating OCD. It’s suitable for clinicians working in private practice, community agencies, hospitals, or school-based settings. No prior OCD-specific training is required—just curiosity, openness, and a commitment to developing your clinical skills.
Register for the Building OCD Competency Program
A six-week immersive clinical training designed to strengthen your confidence and skill in treating OCD using evidence-based ERP and Rumination-Focused ERP. Complete the form below to reserve your spot for the upcoming cohort.