ABOUT OUR PRACTICE
Evidence-Based & Compassionate Care
At OCDMN, we believe in personalized care. Your journey towards recovery begins with an in-depth assessment, during which we develop a collaborative treatment plan tailored to your specific needs and goals. Throughout your time with us, you will receive evidence-based therapy, learn valuable coping skills, and receive unwavering support from our compassionate team of professionals.
MEET OUR TEAM
Committed To Your Mental Health.
As providers, we bring a lot of compassion and a little creativity to each session. Our goal is to meet each client where they are, draw them into the process, and guide them along the journey to better mental health. We also remain dedicated to staying current with the most recent advancements in research and therapeutic techniques to ensure that our clients receive the highest quality care.
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She/Her
Treats: Children, adolescents, and adults
Provides: In-office, out-of-office, in-home, and telehealth
Specialties: Selective Mutism, OCD, Anxiety
Patsy is one of the premier selective mutism specialists in the state of Minnesota. She served as state coordinator for the Selective Mutism Association for over 4 years and is currently a registered provider through the national Selective Mutism Association. She holds a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology from Saint Mary's University of Minnesota and is working under supervision to become a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor.
She is passionate about empowering children and adolescents to acquire skills to manage selective mutism, anxiety, and OCD in every aspect of their lives. Patsy actively partners with parents and believes a collaborative relationship is integral to effective treatment. Using an integrated approach (parent-child interaction, cognitive behavioral therapy, exposure therapy, and social communication strategies), she blends personal strengths with playful humor to increase confidence and self-efficacy.
In her free time, Patsy serves as the Chair of the Governor's Interagency Council for Early Childhood Intervention. Additionally, she represents family voices for the Minnesota Department of Education's Comprehensive System of Personnel Development where she advocates for equity for children and families through early childhood intervention. She also enjoys sewing, gardening, home projects, and spending time with her family.
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She/Her
Treats: Adults and couples
Provides: In-person and telehealth
Specialties: Anxiety, OCD, Scrupulosity, Existential/Spiritual Concerns, Trauma, Relationships, Self-esteem, Identity, Life transitions
Maggie Duret earned her MA in Counseling and Psychological Services from St. Mary’s University in 2020 and her in BA in Music with a focus in Vocal Performance and Education from Luther College in 2017.
Maggie is a supportive, warm, and fun therapist with experience treating individuals and couples. She most enjoys working with those experiencing anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, religious scrupulosity, trauma, self-identity concerns, relationship issues, and life transitions. She is LGBTQ+ affirming and passionate about social justice. Her clients are often interested in examining existential and spiritual concerns, anywhere on the spectrum of it being an area of importance for the client, all the way to it being a place that has caused the client great distress.
Maggie uses a unique and integrative approach tailored for each client. She is extensively trained in using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Inference-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT), Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP), and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). She also incorporates family of origin, narrative, mindfulness, solution-focused, and motivational interviewing techniques.
In her personal time, Maggie enjoys spending time with her dear friends and family, being an animal-mom to her dog and cat, singing, writing, reading, and living a cozy life with her sweet husband.
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She/Her
Treats: children, adolescents, and adults
Provides: In-person
Hannah Ose earned her BA in Psychology and BS in Therapeutic Recreation from Winona State University in 2019. She is currently an MSW student with a focus in clinical trauma-informed care at Winona State University, set to graduate in 2026.
Hannah is a passionate and empathetic Recreation Therapist, using her love of leisure to help clients of all ages reach their goals. She strives to authentically connect with the people she serves and support them in their path to build acceptance and confidence.
Hannah has lived experience with OCD and anxiety, and is driven to provide clients with evidence-based Recreation Therapy interventions that will support the maintenance and building of skills learned in other therapy modalities.
In her free time, Hannah loves being in nature, spending time with her partner, snuggling her sweet dog, singing, traveling, dancing, and doing anything creative.
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He/Him
Treats: Children, adolescents, and adults
Provides In-office, out-of-office, in-home, and telehealth
Specialties: OCD, Phobias, Hypochondriasis, GAD, Social Anxiety, Agoraphobia, Depression
Habla español
Javier Osuna obtained his Master's degree in General Health Psychology from the International University of Valencia (Spain) in 2020. He has also attended numerous conventions and specialization courses.
He has extensive experience in treating OCD and related disorders using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Exposure with Response Prevention (ERP). In his work, he prioritizes building a connection, understanding and supporting the client.
He is passionate about everything related to Psychology, especially working to improve people's quality of life. His curiosity and eagerness to learn drive him to improve in his work every day.
In his free time, Javier enjoys participating in sports of all kinds, enjoying nature through hiking and camping, and he loves traveling to experience new cultures.
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She/Her
Treats: Children, adolescents, and adults
Provides: In-office, out-of-office, in-home, and telehealth
Specialties: OCD, Phobias, Panic Disorder, Hypochondriasis, GAD, Social Anxiety, Agoraphobia, Body Dysmorphic Disorder
Erin Venker earned her master’s degree in Professional Clinical Counseling from St. Thomas University in 2017 and her BA in Studio Art from Saint Olaf College in 2010.
Erin has received extensive training in exposure and response prevention therapy from multiple well-known experts in the field, and has several years of experience treating OCD and related disorders. Having OCD herself, Erin has a unique ability to connect with her clients. She uses creativity and an open sense of humor, while providing highly collaborative and evidenced-based treatment that focuses on clients to help them reach their individual treatment goals.
Outside of the clinic, Erin enjoys doing art, being with her dogs and cat, and watching British shows with her husband.
What is OCD?
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) involves persistent, distressing, and intrusive thoughts (obsessions) that lead to repetitive and ritualistic behaviors (compulsions) aimed at reducing anxiety. These compulsions provide temporary relief but perpetuate the cycle of anxiety in OCD. Our evidence-based treatments drastically reduce this cycle and decrease these unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. Read more below.
OCD can manifest in a variety of ways. The following are some of the types of OCD we treat at our clinic.*
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Common Obsessions: Fear of bodily waste or fluids, germs, chemicals, or other “contaminants”.
Common Compulsions: Washing hands ritually or excessively, cleaning, decontaminating, avoiding, reassurance-seeking, researching/Googling.
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Common Obsessions: Excessive doubt about loving a partner “enough,” excessive concern with quality of relationships, intrusive thoughts about being in the wrong relationship.
Common Compulsions: Checking emotions, comparing feelings with partner with feelings with someone else, tracking time spent with friends, ruminating, rigid rules about friendships, mental reviewing/replaying.
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Common Obsessions: Fear of being sexually attracted to children, fear of being a pedophile, intrusive thoughts and images about children.
Common Compulsions: Avoiding children, checking feelings and sensations to see if attracted to children, compulsively ruminating or reviewing behavior, thoughts, or feelings around children.
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Common Obsessions: Fear of being in denial about sexual orientation or changing sexual orientation, intrusive thoughts relating to sexual orientation.
Common Compulsions: Checking for feelings or sensations in triggering situations, avoiding triggering situations, ruminating about sexual themes, mentally reviewing past behavior or situations, comparing self to others with same/opposite sexual orientation, researching, confessing.
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Item descriptionCommon Obsessions: Unwanted sexual intrusive thoughts, often taboo in content.
Common Compulsions: Excessive rumination, compulsions trying to get rid of unwanted thoughts, checking feelings and sensations, confessing.
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Common Obsessions: Fear of violently harming self or others, fear of losing control and causing harm, violent intrusive thoughts.
Common Compulsions: Avoidance of triggering objects (e.g. knives), avoidance of triggering media, ruminating, checking violent intrusive thoughts, checking environment for things that may cause harm, avoiding triggering environments or situations, confessing.
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Common Obsessions: Excessive fear about one’s health or mortality, fear of having or getting an illness (e.g. cancer, Parkinsons).
Common Compulsions: Excessive checking or scanning one’s body for symptoms, excessive google searching or researching about feared illnesses or symptoms, excessive reassurance-seeking or avoidance of medical professionals/procedures, excessive medical appointments/testing.
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Common Obsessions: Excessive fear about being responsible for something terrible happening (fire, burglary, motor vehicle accident, a loved one’s death, etc) even if actions are not directly related to the terrible consequence.
Common Compulsions: Excessive checking (rearview mirror, driving in circles, locks, stove, appliances), reassurance-seeking/asking others to make sure nothing terrible happened, watching the news, looking up warrants for arrest, avoidance of driving/cooking/saying/doing certain things.
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Common Obsessions: Excessive concern with things being perfect or exact, intolerance of imperfection, needing things to be in a certain place/look a certain way.
Common Compulsions: Re-reading, re-writing, rearranging, re-organizing, spending hours on an assignment/project that took others significantly less time, avoidance of writing/reading/projects, throwing things away that aren’t perfect.
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Common Obsessions: Fear of being sinful or blasphemous, intrusive thoughts surrounding religion or religious figures/deities, fear of not being perfectly religious.
Common Compulsions: Obsessive praying, rumination on religious behavior, trying to be perfectly “religious”, excessive research on religious concepts, excessively rigid rules about religion.
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Common Obsessions: Fear of being immoral or morally imperfect, fear of not being perfectly truthful or honest, fear of having acted immorally in the past or being accused of acting immorally in the future.
Common Compulsions: Excessive rumination and mental reviewing of thoughts, actions, and behaviors relating to morality, excessive attention to moral issues and behavior, reassurance-seeking about moral issues.
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Common Obsessions: Unwanted taboo, sexual, or violent intrusive thoughts or mental images relating to infant, fear of causing harming to infant, fear of harm or something bad happening to infant, fear of losing control.
Common Compulsions: Hypervigilance in protecting infant, excessively checking infant, avoiding baby for fear of harming, asking for reassurance, monitoring self for unwanted feelings, sensations, or thoughts.
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Common Obsessions: Fear of not being able to stop excessive awareness of external stimuli or normal bodily functions such as blinking, breathing, heart rate, eye floaters in vision, salivating, or other involuntary/semi-voluntary behaviors.
Common Compulsions: Checking for awareness, excessive distraction from triggers, rumination over whether awareness will ever go away, reassurance-seeking about symptoms or about what is normal.
Other anxiety-related disorders we treat
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Common Symptoms: Excessive worry about a variety of situations and in a variety of contexts, difficulty controlling the worry, restlessness, fatigue, muscle tension, difficulty concentrating/mind going blank, irritability, sleep disturbance.
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Common Symptoms: Excessive fear about social situations, fear of negative judgments from others, avoidance of social situations or intense distress when in social situations, inward focus in social situations.
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Common Symptoms: Excessive fear of using public transportation, being in open spaces, being in enclosed spaces, standing in line or being in a crowd, and/or being outside of the home alone, avoidance of those situations which provoke excessive fear because escaping may be difficult or help may not be available or tolerance of situations only with a “safe” person or with intense distress.
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Common Symptoms: Abrupt surges of fear characterized by pounding heart, sweating, shaking, shortness of breath, feelings of choking, chest pain, nausea or abdominal distress, feeling dizzy/unsteady/light-headed, chills/heat sensations, numbness/tingling, feelings of unreality or being detached from oneself, fear of losing control, fear of dying. Persistent fear of having another panic attack and/or maladaptive behavioral changes after a panic attack.
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Common Symptoms: Excessive fear about a specific situation/object that is out of proportion to the actual threat, common phobias include blood/needle/injection, vomit, spiders, dogs, heights, storms, water, airplanes, elevators/enclosed spaces.
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Selective mutism is a childhood anxiety disorder characterized by a consistent inability to speak in specific social situations despite speaking in other settings. It usually begins in early childhood and can affect a child’s social interactions and development.
Common Symptoms: Inability to speak, limited verbal communication, excessive shyness or anxiety, freezing or clinging, delayed speech development, social isolation, avoidance behavior, physical symptoms, perfectionism.
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Common Symptoms: Excessive need to be perfect or flawless in appearance, writing, working, schoolwork, etc, intolerance of mistakes or imperfections, spending an excessive amount of time on things to make them perfect, always feeling you can do better, persistent fear of failure.
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Common Symptoms: Excessive preoccupation with perceived bodily defects that others do not observe, excessive mirror checking, excessive grooming, excessive comparisons, skin-picking, reassurance-seeking from others, avoidance of social events/leaving the house unless looking “perfect”.
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Common Symptoms: Excessive skin-picking that can result in lesions on the skin, unsuccessful attempts to stop skin-picking description.
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Common Symptoms: Excessive hair-pulling (head, arm, pubic area, eyebrows, etc) that may lead to bald spots, unsuccessful attempts to stop hair-pulling.
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Common Symptoms: Excessive fear/negative emotions associated with getting rid of items regardless of value, perceived need to save things, excessive clutter in the home that compromises the intended use of the home (or the home is uncluttered due to a third party intervening), sometimes with excessive acquisition or feeling the need to buy more things.
*These are common OCD themes, however OCD can essentially attach to anything as an obsession and create limitless compulsions. If you are unsure if your symptoms are OCD, we can help you with that.
Treatment Methods
We use a variety of therapy protocols to treat OCD and anxiety disorders. Many are complementary and may be used in tandem.
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ERP involves a structured approach to confronting obsessive triggers. During therapy, individuals intentionally expose themselves to distressing thoughts, situations, places, or objects that typically trigger their OCD symptoms. Simultaneously, they work on refraining from engaging in compulsive behaviors, rituals, or excessive rumination. Over time, this process helps individuals build tolerance to their anxiety and reduce the power of OCD, ultimately leading to greater symptom control and improved quality of life.
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Inference-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (I-CBT) is a research-supported treatment for OCD that focuses on understanding and resolving the specific doubts that trigger OCD symptoms. It views OCD as a disorder where sufferers have a distorted reliance on imagination and a lack of trust in their senses and common sense.
The therapy aims to address these obsessional doubts by challenging the flawed reasoning process (Inferential Confusion) behind them. Central to I-CBT is the concept that OCD sufferers fear becoming someone they don’t want to be, the Feared Possible Self, and it works to realign their perception with reality
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Mindfulness therapy is a therapeutic approach that cultivates present-moment awareness, helping individuals develop a non-judgmental, accepting attitude toward their thoughts, emotions, and sensations. Through mindfulness techniques and practices, it promotes mental clarity, emotional resilience, and improved overall well-being.
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SPACE, or Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions, is a parent-based treatment program created by Dr. Eli Lebowitz at the Yale Child Study Center. It is specifically designed to help children and adolescents who are dealing with anxiety disorders, including Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and related emotional challenges. While the children themselves do not attend SPACE sessions, they are the primary focus of the treatment as patients.
This program has undergone rigorous testing through randomized controlled clinical trials, demonstrating its effectiveness. The core objective of SPACE is to empower parents with strategies and techniques to support their children's emotional well-being and address anxiety and OCD symptoms. As a result of successful SPACE treatment, children often experience reduced anxiety and improved overall functioning, highlighting the program's positive impact on their lives.
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Recreational Therapy offers structured, enjoyable activities, customized to meet each client's unique needs and goals. Our diverse program includes yoga and meditation, creative movement, leisure education, discussion-based activities, creative arts, and so much more to reach goals, establish/maintain a healthy leisure lifestyle, and improve overall quality of life. More than symptom management, it's about empowering individuals through achievement, enhancing self-esteem and confidence. Recreation Therapy sessions encourage the practice of mindfulness, helping to focus on the present and alleviate negative thought patterns.
Additionally, we offer controlled exposure exercises in a supportive environment, effectively addressing specific fears and anxieties.
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DBT is a comprehensive and evidence-based therapeutic approach that combines cognitive-behavioral techniques with mindfulness and acceptance strategies. It is particularly effective in helping individuals with emotional regulation difficulties, borderline personality disorder, and other mental health challenges. DBT equips individuals with practical skills to manage intense emotions and improve interpersonal relationships.
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CBT is an evidence-based therapeutic approach that empowers individuals to challenge and change cognitive distortions, unhelpful thinking patterns, irrational assumptions, and negative self-beliefs. By fostering self-awareness and practical problem-solving skills, CBT helps individuals develop healthier coping strategies, manage their emotions, and address a wide range of mental health challenges for improved overall well-being.
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COMING SOON
OCD IS NOT AN ADJECTIVE.