Perinatal OCD & Intrusive Thoughts

Perinatal OCD can be especially frightening because OCD often targets what matters most to you.

You may worry:

• What if I accidentally hurt my baby?

• What if I don't actually want my baby?

• What if this thought means something about me?

• What if I missed something during pregnancy?

• What if something is wrong with my baby?

• What if I can't trust myself?

You may respond by:

• Checking your baby repeatedly

• Seeking reassurance from your partner, family, doctors, or online

• Googling symptoms, illnesses, pregnancy concerns, or parenting questions

• Mentally reviewing what happened to make sure you didn't do something wrong

• Avoiding being alone with your baby

• Avoiding certain objects, places, or activities

• Repeatedly analyzing whether a thought is meaningful

• Trying to prove to yourself that you would never act on an unwanted thought

• Looking for certainty that you are a good mother or that your baby is safe

These experiences can be deeply upsetting, particularly when the thoughts involve someone you love so much.

An unwanted thought is not the same as an intention. Having a frightening thought does not mean you want it, and it does not define you as a parent.

The goal of therapy is not to convince you that nothing bad will ever happen or to eliminate every unwanted thought. Instead, ERP helps you change the way you respond when OCD demands certainty, reducing the checking, reassurance seeking, avoidance, analysis, and other compulsive responses that keep the cycle going.

I work with a range of OCD presentations, including perinatal OCD, harm OCD, fertility OCD, intrusive thoughts, and other forms of obsessional doubt and compulsive responding.

Perinatal Mental Health

Pregnancy, postpartum, and early parenthood can change nearly every part of life—your body, relationships, routines, identity, and sense of responsibility. For some women, this period also brings new or intensified anxiety, OCD, depression, or trauma-related symptoms.

As a Certified Perinatal Mental Health Professional (PMH-C), I work with women navigating the psychological challenges of pregnancy and early parenthood, including:

• Perinatal OCD and intrusive thoughts

• Perinatal anxiety

• Pregnancy and postpartum trauma

• Pregnancy and infant loss

• Anxiety following a high-risk pregnancy or complicated medical experience

• The emotional transition into parenthood

I also have experience working with military women and families, including the ways pregnancy and parenthood can intersect with the demands of military life.

Trauma, PTSD & Exposure-Based Treatment

My clinical background includes substantial experience working with trauma-related concerns in military and medical settings. During my military career, I provided psychotherapy and behavioral health care to active-duty service members and worked with multidisciplinary medical teams.

I have specialized training in Prolonged Exposure (PE), an evidence-based treatment for PTSD. PE helps people gradually approach trauma memories and situations they have learned to avoid, rather than continuing to organize their lives around avoidance.

My training in both PE and ERP can be particularly useful when OCD and trauma-related symptoms overlap. Treatment may involve understanding how intrusive thoughts, avoidance, compulsive responses, and trauma-related symptoms interact and determining which patterns need to be addressed.

How I Work

My approach is warm, direct, and collaborative. I believe you should feel understood in therapy, while also having the opportunity to make meaningful changes.

For OCD, I use ERP with a focus on reducing compulsive responding rather than trying to eliminate unwanted thoughts. For trauma-related concerns, I draw from exposure-based approaches designed to help people move toward experiences they have been avoiding.

I also recognize that symptoms do not occur in isolation. Pregnancy, parenthood, relationships, medical experiences, and other major life transitions can all shape how OCD, anxiety, and trauma show up. Therapy should account for that broader context while remaining focused on meaningful clinical change.