Virtual Anxiety and OCD Therapy in NYC

Online Anxiety and OCD Therapy across New York

Struggling with Anxiety or OCD can feel like a full time job.

Constantly on high alert of your surroundings, racing or intrusive thoughts and behaviors that are shrinking your life… but it feels impossible to stop

However, it does not need to be this way. You deserve to get back to an expansive life that does not feel controlled by anxiety.

virtual anxiety therapy nyc

Struggling with anxiety can feel like you’re trapped in your own mind.

An intrusive thought or disturbing image popping up unexpectedly

Declining activities you enjoy due to uncertainty of who will be there or other unknowns

Being overly hypervigilant just incase the worst case scenario in your mind happens

Fear that your thoughts indicate your values

but that is your anxiety talking because you are not your thoughts.

Anxiety does not need to rule your life and you should be so proud of yourself for taking the first step to seek treatment.

Get Started

What is the difference between Anxiety and OCD?

  • OCD is part of the Obsessive-compulsive related disorders

  • Includes intrusive thoughts, images or obsessions that often cause high anxiety, worry or fear. These intrusive thoughts and obsessions are followed by a compulsion or repetitive behaviors to soothe the anxiety

  • Obsessions tend to follow certain themes (such as, someone with relationship OCD may have relationship obsessions)

  • Compulsions can be behaviors (such as excessive hand washing, repeated checking if the stove is off, reassurance seeking) or mental acts (such as rumination, mental counting, repeated words/phrases)

OCD

  • Anxiety disorders include generalized anxiety, social anxiety, specific phobias, panic disorder and more

  • Anxiety disorders do not follow the pattern of an obsession followed by a compulsion the same way OCD does

  • Some anxiety disorders are characterized by specific fears. Such as social anxiety (fear of social situations), specific phobias (intense fear of specific object/situation such as heights) or agoraphobia (fear of places/situations that may cause embarrassment or being trapped)

  • Generalized anxiety is characterized by more persistent worry about various situations

ANXIETY

Learn more about reassurance seeking

Our approaches to Anxiety Therapy

Expoure & Response Prevention (ERP)

ERP is the frontline treatment for OCD. Together we will gently explore your current obsessions and compulsions. At your pace, we will incrementally and gently use exposures target the obsessions while intervening to decrease the compulsions. Overtime, this breaks the obsession and compulsion loop that keeps people feeling stuck.

Cognitive Behavioral Tools

We use a blend of strategies under the cognitive behavioral umbrella to tailor coping skills to your needs and goals. This may range from mindfulness skills, increasing value-aligned living, emotion regulation techniques and self-compassion practices. We believe in providing clients with concrete tools to support symptom relief and rewiring thought patterns overtime.

Schedule a free consultation

Internal Family Systems (IFS or also known as parts work)

IFS is an exploratory process to discover how your anxiety may have developed as a means of protection. Our brain often develops strategies to keep ourselves safe and when using IFS, we will compassionately explore the root causes of why your anxiety may have developed and how we can make those parts of you feel safer.

Related support areas…

Eating Disorder Therapy | Body Image Therapy | BFRB Therapy | Body-Positive Therapy | Neuroaffirming Therapy

Anxiety and OCD specialist

Alison Mann, LCSW, Anxiety & OCD Specialist

Specialties

  • OCD

  • Anxiety

  • Eating Disorders

  • Body Dysmorphia

  • Eating disorders

  • BFRBs (skin picking and hair pulling)

  • Perfectionism

  • People pleasing

  • ADHD

Modalities

  • CBT

  • ERP

  • DBT

  • ACT

  • Mirror exposure therapy

  • Mindfulness

  • Self compassion practices

  • Psychodynamic

FAQs

  • You may benefit from therapy if your thoughts feel constant, overwhelming, or hard to control, or if you find yourself stuck in cycles of worry, overthinking, or repetitive behaviors (like checking, reassurance seeking, or mental rituals). Even if you’re high-functioning, anxiety and OCD can still take up a lot of mental space—therapy helps you get that space back.

    Some repetitive behaviors like skin picking or hair pulling are classified as BFRBs and are treated differently—learn more here

  • The gold standard treatment for OCD is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), a type of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) that helps you face fears without relying on compulsions. For anxiety, therapy often includes CBT and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which focus on changing your relationship with anxious thoughts rather than trying to eliminate them while increasing coping skills to reduce anxiety overtime.

  • Therapy helps you understand why intrusive thoughts happen and teaches you how to respond differently to them. Instead of getting stuck in fear, avoidance, or compulsions, you’ll learn skills to tolerate uncertainty, reduce reactivity, and break the cycle that keeps anxiety and OCD going.

  • Making sure you find a therapist who is a good fit is crucial. That is why we will start with a 15min consultation together. During this call, I will explore what you are looking for and you will be able to ask me any questions as well. If we decide it is a good fit, then we will schedule our initial appointment!

    If for any reason it is not a good fit, then I am happy to offer you referrals.