ERP therapy that makes room for the whole person.
Exposure and Response Prevention, or ERP, is an evidence-based therapy for OCD. The work is structured and direct, but it should also be collaborative, understandable, and connected to your actual life.
What ERP actually means
ERP helps you practice approaching thoughts, feelings, situations, or uncertainty that OCD treats like an emergency. At the same time, you practice changing the compulsions, reassurance, checking, avoidance, or other responses that keep the cycle going.
The goal is not to make you comfortable with everything or force you into an exposure. The work is planned together, paced intentionally, and designed to help you build more choice around how you respond to OCD.
Therapy may include
- Understanding your OCD cycle, including less visible mental compulsions
- Identifying avoidance, reassurance, checking, rumination, and rituals
- Building an exposure plan together
- Practicing response prevention in and between sessions
- Making room for autism, ADHD, disability, identity, trauma history, and capacity
- Tracking what is helping without reducing you to a symptom score
Evidence-based does not have to mean impersonal.
ERP needs enough structure to target OCD clearly. It also needs enough flexibility to account for communication, sensory needs, executive functioning, culture, identity, and the rest of your life.
Therapy is provided by Allyssa Ghans, LCSW, ASDCS, a New Jersey licensed clinical social worker whose work centers disability, neurodivergence, and real-world functioning.
Therapy is not an evaluation.
This service is ongoing psychotherapy for New Jersey clients. It does not provide autism or ADHD diagnostic testing, neuropsychological testing, a disability determination, or a formal functional evaluation.
If the central question is documentation, functioning, support needs, or a written report, review the separate evaluation services.
Getting diagnosed does not guarantee a referral to effective care.
In a 2025 analysis of 10.4 million patient records, the International OCD Foundation found that more than 72% of patients identified as having OCD were not referred for cognitive behavioral therapy. The report also found that 95% to 98% had no documented ERP treatment.
If you are unsure what to ask for
A free 15-minute fit call can clarify whether a LYSYN service fits your question and what the next step would be. The call is about scope and logistics. It is not therapy, diagnosis, or personalized clinical guidance.
Ask about the therapy waitlist.
Therapy is currently waitlisted. You can still ask about fit, insurance, and future availability without sending private clinical details in the first message.