What ERP Therapy Really Is (and Why It’s the Gold Standard for OCD)
By Divya Robin, LMHC, LPC | OCD & ERP Therapy in NYC, Hoboken, and Montclair, NJ
If you’ve ever tried to “logic” your way out of OCD, you already know how exhausting that can feel. You reassure yourself, search online, and ask others for certainty.
You promise that this time you’ll stop checking, confessing, reviewing, or avoiding - convinced you can talk yourself out of the spirals. And then the intrusive thought returns anyway, often stronger than before.
That’s the point many people reach when they realize something important: OCD doesn’t get better with reassurance - it actually feeds on it. That’s where ERP therapy comes in to break the cycle.
Let’s Start Here: OCD Is Not a Thought Problem
One of the biggest misconceptions I see, even among well-intentioned therapists, is the belief that OCD is about believing the wrong thoughts.
It’s not. Let’s move the focus away from the thoughts. The content of the thoughts isn’t the focus.
OCD is a disorder of two things 1) uncertainty intolerance and 2) compulsive relief-seeking.
Your brain sounds an alarm (“what if?”), and your nervous system demands immediate certainty or safety. I often tell patients that it feels like an itch that you HAVE to scratch. The urgency feels incredibly loud in your brain.
ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention) doesn’t try to convince you that the alarm is false. It teaches your nervous system that you don’t need to obey it. It helps patients start to build skills and confidence to exist and live freely even when the alarm is blaring.
That distinction matters more than most people realize.
What ERP Therapy Actually Looks Like in Real Life (With Me)
ERP is often explained in very rigid, intimidating ways online. In reality, when done well, it’s collaborative, paced, and deeply relational. Many new patients of mine are worried about starting ERP therapy (rightfully so). However, when we get into the work, they shift from fearful to hopeful. I’m here to walk every step of the way with you.
In ERP therapy, we:
Gently and intentionally approach feared thoughts, images, or sensations
Practice not engaging in compulsions, reassurance, or mental rituals
Allow anxiety to rise and fall without trying to fix it
Teach your brain, through experience, that uncertainty is survivable
This is not about flooding your nervous system, throwing you into panic, or making you approach something you can not handle.
It’s about learning, slowly and safely, that anxiety can move through you - and that you don’t have to rearrange your life around it.
Why ERP Is the Gold Standard for OCD Treatment
ERP is considered the gold-standard treatment for OCD because it directly targets the mechanism that keeps OCD alive: the compulsion cycle. If we don’t address this, you’re working surface level with the OCD. I provide gold standard ERP treatment and therapy for OCD in New York City and New Jersey (Hoboken, NJ, and Montclair, NJ).
Without ERP, therapy can accidentally reinforce OCD by:
Offering reassurance
Analyzing thoughts endlessly
Focusing only on insight instead of behavior
Avoiding triggers “until you feel better”
ERP does the opposite - and that’s why it works. I’ve unfortunately seen many patients come to therapy and say that the past “OCD therapy” that they were doing was focused on the thoughts vs. the compulsion cycle. The result … they feel worse.
There are decades of research supporting ERP for OCD, intrusive thoughts, and related anxiety disorders. But research alone isn’t enough.
How ERP is delivered matters just as much as whether it’s used at all.
My Training in ERP (and Why I Take This Work Seriously)
I completed a two-year post-graduate fellowship in Cognitive Behavioral Therapies, with advanced training in:
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
CBT
ACT
DBT-informed interventions
That training shaped how I work - but more importantly, it shaped what I won’t do.
I won’t reassure your OCD.
I won’t collude with rituals that feel “protective.”
And I won’t rush you into exposures you’re not ready for.
ERP works best when it’s paired with a therapist who understands both the science and the emotional weight of this disorder. OCD is not just distressing - it’s isolating, confusing, and often deeply shame-inducing. My job is to help you face it without feeling alone. I work with you so you can better understand your OCD, your themes, your compulsion cycle, and your fears. Then, together - with your willingness, we WILL work through it all.
Common OCD Themes I Work With:
I work with adults, teens, and young adults navigating many forms of OCD, including:
Intrusive thoughts (harm, sexual, taboo, or “what if” thoughts)
Health anxiety and medical OCD
Relationship OCD (ROCD)
Moral or “just right” OCD
Pregnancy and postpartum OCD (Perinatal OCD)
Checking, mental reviewing, reassurance-seeking
Scrupulosity and perfectionism-driven OCD
If your OCD doesn’t fit neatly into a category, that’s okay. Most people don’t. Many fit into various categories, or it’s very common that the categories change/shift through the years.
What ERP Therapy With Me Feels Like
Clients often tell me ERP with me feels:
Structured, but not rigid
Challenging, but emotionally safe
Honest, human, and collaborative
Focused on real life, not just symptoms
We talk openly about fear.
We laugh sometimes.
We move slowly when needed - and push gently when it’s time.
ERP isn’t about becoming fearless. It’s about becoming less controlled by fear.
OCD Therapy in NYC, Hoboken, and Montclair, NJ
I provide OCD and ERP therapy for clients in:
New York City (NYC)
Hoboken, NJ (in person)
Montclair, NJ
Greater New Jersey area (telehealth)
If you’ve been told to “just sit with the thought” without guidance - or if therapy has felt like endless talking without change - ERP may offer something different.
About OCD Therapy with Divya Robin, LMHC, LPC
Divya Robin is a Columbia University–trained psychotherapist providing evidence-based OCD and ERP therapy for adults, teens, and young adults in New York City (NYC), Hoboken, and Montclair, New Jersey.
She has completed advanced, multi-year training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), the gold-standard treatment for OCD. Divya specializes in treating intrusive thoughts, compulsions, health anxiety, relationship OCD, and high-functioning anxiety, offering structured yet relational therapy for individuals seeking effective OCD treatment in NYC and Northern New Jersey.