Anxiety Specialists of St. Louis

Anxiety Specialists of St. Louis We help people with anxiety and OCD go from afraid and stuck to living a life they love.

These are the changes I’m fighting for in OCD treatment this year.Every week I see brilliant, women who are keeping it a...
01/23/2026

These are the changes I’m fighting for in OCD treatment this year.

Every week I see brilliant, women who are keeping it all together on the outside but struggling on the inside feeling like the only way out of OCD is through exposure therapy and to face your worst fears over and over until they don’t scare you anymore.

Exposure therapy is great, I use it all the time. But it doesn’t work for everyone and when it doesn’t work, people think they’re the problem.

For some people, the problem is that obsessional doubt is being treated like a fear issue when it’s actually a trust issue and a reasoning issue.

When you learn to recognize the difference between what you’ve observed versus what you’re imagining might be true, things start to change. You stop needing compulsions because you learn to trust your own reasoning again.

This year, I want more people to know there’s another path, one that helps you rebuild trust in yourself.

If you experience obsessional doubt and endless mental checking, you’re in the right place.

Comment DOUBT below and I’ll DM you my free guide on why OCD thoughts feel so convincing, the first step in breaking free from OCD.

01/09/2026

If you understand OCD intellectually but the doubt keeps showing up anyway... this is for you.

Most OCD treatment focuses on managing anxiety and sitting with uncertainty. But for some people, that approach doesn’t stick. It’s not because you’re doing it wrong, but because the real problem is the reasoning process that creates the doubt in the first place.

That’s what I-CBT addresses.

In my free workshop on January 12th, I’m walking you through the TIE framework, which is the three phases that create and sustain OCD doubt

✨ Trust erosion (why you doubt what you actually know)
✨ Imagination takes over (how possibilities feel like probabilities)
✨ Evidence manufacturing (why compulsions reinforce the cycle)

You’ll see a real example broken down step-by-step, plus get a worksheet to map your own experience.
If you’ve been exhausted from trying harder, managing better, pushing through. I think this workshop will show you there’s a completely different way forward.

Workshop is live January 12th (replay available, but I hope you’ll be there live).

Register via link in bio. I’ll see you on the 12th.

01/08/2026

Here’s what I teach my clients about the googling trap

1. Recognize the pattern of doubt → google → temporary relief → more doubt. Each search trains your brain that doubt = danger. You’re not solving anything, you’re feeding the cycle.

2. “Am I looking for facts or reassurance?” If you already know the answer but keep searching anyway, it’s reassurance-seeking and reassurance makes OCD stronger.

3. Notice what you’re REALLY questioning. You’re not researching facts, you’re questioning what your senses are telling you. “What if I missed something?” “What if I’m the exception?” That’s doubting what your senses (five senses, inner senses, and common sense) have already told you.

4. Close the browser without checking “just one more time.” The urge to search feels urgent when it’s not. It’s your brain trying to eliminate an imagined threat that doesn’t exist.

5. Dismiss the doubt. The goal isn’t to solve the doubt, it’s to realize that it came from wonky reasoning in the first place and doesn’t deserve your attention.

6. Remember that Google can’t give you what you’re actually looking for. OCD is about not trusting yourself and you’re never going to find that on the internet or from someone else’s experience.

Save this for the next time the urge to google shows up.

✨Join me January 12th to understand what’s actually happening when OCD doubts show up—link in bio.

01/08/2026

Here’s what I teach my clients when they need to know FOR SURE.

1. Name it as doubt
This is doubt, not new information. Your brain is treating doubt as danger when it’s not.

2. Drop the investigation
Notice you’re searching for certainty (replaying, analyzing, asking others). That search IS the problem, not the solution.

3. Accept that decisions are made with no guarantees
You made the best decision with the info you had. Absolute certainty doesn’t exist, even when OCD screams it should.

4. Are you problem solving or doubting?
Problem solving uses facts. Doubting questions facts you already know. If you’re going in circles, it’s doubt.

5. Treat “but what if” as noise
Every “but what if” feels urgent. It’s not. It’s your OCD generating noise to keep you checking.Treat it like other noise by disengaging and moving on.

6. Practice the discomfort of “certain enough”
The goal isn’t to feel 100% certain. It’s to use the information you have and trust yourself to cope with the outcome.

Want help understanding the difference between normal doubt and obsessional doubt? Join me January 12th for “Is this real or OCD?”—link in bio.

If you’ve ever driven over a bump and spent the next 3 hours convinced you hit someone... this is for you.Hit and run OC...
01/05/2026

If you’ve ever driven over a bump and spent the next 3 hours convinced you hit someone... this is for you.

Hit and run OCD is one of the most terrifying and misunderstood presentations of OCD.

The fear is real, the misery is real, and you’re not broken. You’re experiencing obsessional doubt that your brain is treating as like a real problem that needs to be solved.

This responds incredibly well to ICBT. You don’t have to live like this.

Drop a 🚗 if this resonated.

12/18/2025

This right here!

She touched the doorknob and her brain told a story about being contaminated and needing to wash.
But instead of heading straight to the sink, she paused and asked…”Where’s my evidence?”

What OCD does is present imagined possibilities as if they’re observable facts. “What if someone sick touched this? What if you’re contaminated now? What if you get your kids sick?”

But when you strip away the “what ifs” and look at what you actually perceive with your senses, there’s no evidence. There’s just a really vivid but still imaginary possibility.

So she didn’t wash! She trusted what she observed (or in this case, what she DIDN’T observe) instead of what OCD was inferring.

That’s the work we do in ICBT.

Sign up for my free guide in the bio if this resonates.

12/17/2025

The checking paradox that no one explains…

Why does checking make you MORE uncertain, not less?

Because obsessional doubt doesn’t respond to evidence the way normal doubt does.

Normal doubt: “What’s true?” Obsessional doubt: “What’s possible?”

And anything is possible. So no amount of checking will ever be enough.

You’re not broken, you’re dealing with obsessional doubt.

Address

3250 Hampton Avenue, Suite 200
St. Louis, MO
63139

Telephone

+13144622965

Website

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