OCD & Anxiety Specialist
Online OCD Therapy in Colorado To Help You Get Unstuck
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) Treatment for OCD | Serving Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, and Beyond.
Hi, I’m Josh Kaplan, an OCD therapist with over a decade of experience specializing in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy. Treatment is customized to your needs, whether you’re looking for weekly ERP sessions or a more intensive outpatient OCD program. My approach is structured, effective, and designed to help you or your loved one make real, lasting progress.
Schedule a free 20-minute consultation.
I deeply respect my clients as some of the bravest people I’ve ever met, and my commitment is to use proven therapies, with care and compassion, to help you find the lasting relief and freedom from OCD you deserve. - Josh Kaplan, LCSW
Understanding the OCD Cycle
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is not about being “neat,” “organized,” or “particular.” It’s a disorder fueled by awful, intrusive thoughts, intense doubt, and a powerful urge to do something, anything, to feel certain, safe, or relieved. And no matter how much you try to think your way out of it, OCD always seems to pull you back in.
OCD's Incredibly Sticky Cycle
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OCD begins with an intrusive thought, image, sensation, or doubt that triggers a rapid spike in anxiety.
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To relieve that discomfort, you feel compelled to engage in rituals, compulsions, mental review, reassurance seeking, or avoidance.
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Relief shows up briefly, which makes the compulsions feel necessary.
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The fear then returns stronger, reinforcing the belief that the thought or sensation was dangerous.
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Over time, the more you try to fight or neutralize the fear, the more stuck you become.
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Every attempt to “make the anxiety go away” teaches your brain that the fear requires control, keeping the cycle alive instead of breaking it.
Over time, OCD can take over your days and weeks, making it difficult to focus at work, enjoy relationships, make decisions, or feel present in your own life. It can leave you exhausted, confused, ashamed, or afraid of your own thoughts.
The good news is that feeling stuck doesn’t mean you are stuck. I’ve spent nearly my entire career specializing in Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP), helping people get unstuck from OCD, while teaching them the tools they need to stay unstuck.
How Does Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP) Work?
ERP Is A Very Specialized Form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy For OCD
Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP) is the gold-standard treatment for OCD because it targets the paradox at the center of the disorder: the more you try to get rid of intrusive thoughts, fears, or sensations, the stronger and stickier they become. OCD convinces you that you must fix, neutralize, or avoid the fear, but every attempt to “make it go away” feeds the cycle and keeps you stuck. ERP flips that pattern on its head.
How ERP Works
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ERP involves gradually and intentionally facing the thoughts, sensations, or situations that trigger anxiety.
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During exposures, you learn how to resist the urge to perform compulsions or mental rituals.
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This removes the reassurance and avoidance OCD depends on to stay alive.
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With repeated practice, your brain learns that the feared outcomes don’t occur.
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Thoughts begin to register as just thoughts, not threats that require action.
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You build tolerance for uncertainty and anxiety rather than trying to control it.
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You learn that anxiety passes naturally without depending on compulsions.
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Intrusive thoughts lose intensity, compulsions loosen their grip, and anxiety fades more quickly over time.
ERP uses the very paradox that maintains OCD to undo it: by no longer fighting your thoughts and fears, you take away the fuel that keeps the disorder alive. This retrains your brain, helping you get unstuck and stay unstuck!
Meet Josh Kaplan, Your Colorado ERP and OCD Specialist
Hi, I’m Josh Kaplan, LCSW. For nearly 15 years, I’ve dedicated my career to helping teens and adults recover from OCD. Treating OCD is something I care deeply about, something I look forward to each day, and something I feel genuinely honored to do. I’ve seen how transformative ERP treatment can be, and my passion comes from watching people who once felt hopeless finally get unstuck and reclaim their lives.
I know that starting ERP can feel intimidating. It’s normal to feel apprehensive about facing anxiety, uncertainty, or the thoughts you’ve worked so hard to avoid. Many clients worry about sharing the content of their intrusive thoughts or compulsions with me, afraid they’ll be judged or misunderstood. I want you to know this clearly: I have worked with every theme and subtype of OCD there is. Nothing you say will shock me, change how I see you, or even cause me to blink. I know exactly how deceptive, creative, and relentless OCD can be, and I also know how to help you loosen its grip.
I consider my clients some of the bravest people I’ve ever met. Choosing to face the disorder head-on, to sit with discomfort, and to challenge the urges that feel so powerful takes courage most people never witness. I value and respect that courage deeply, and I work hard to create a space where you feel safe, supported, and fully understood. I show up authentically, human and imperfect, because real recovery happens in a relationship built on trust, honesty, and genuine connection.
Clients often describe me as calm, warm, and direct. I’ll always explain the “why” behind every step of treatment so you understand exactly how each ERP exercise helps dismantle the OCD cycle. I’m compassionate, but I stay focused. I’ll keep us on track, hold you accountable to the goals you care about, push when I know you can handle more, and support you when the work feels hard. My top priority is helping you get truly unstuck, and I’m committed to guiding you through a process that leads to real, lasting recovery.
Weekly ERP Sessions
Traditional weekly or biweekly ERP sessions provide steady, consistent structure, helping you build the skills needed to interrupt OCD cycles, practice new responses to intrusive thoughts and urges, and make meaningful progress at a manageable pace.
Colorado OCD Intensive Outpatient Program
The intensive outpatient option provides several hours of ERP-focused treatment each week, allowing for deeper, faster progress. This level of care is ideal for more severe or time-consuming OCD symptoms, or when you want to accelerate recovery and create strong momentum in breaking the OCD cycle.
Colorado ERP Therapy for OCD - Personalized to Your Symptom Severity
No two people experience OCD in the same way. For some, meeting once a week (or even biweekly) provides the steady structure needed to make meaningful, consistent progress. For others, whether because the compulsions feel relentless, the doubt is overwhelming, or there’s a desire to move through recovery more quickly, a more intensive approach is appropriate. That’s why I offer the flexibility of traditional weekly or biweekly ERP sessions as well as a structured intensive outpatient program designed to create faster, more focused change for those needing a higher level of support.
ERP Therapy Across Colorado for All OCD Themes and Subtypes
OCD can show up in countless ways. No matter the theme, the underlying mechanics of OCD are the same, which is why Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is equally effective across all subtypes. Many people assume they have “Pure-O” because they don’t notice any outward rituals, but in most cases, they’re engaging in mental compulsions, things like analyzing, reviewing, neutralizing thoughts, or trying to “figure things out.” These mental compulsions function just like visible rituals. ERP targets both the obvious and the subtle patterns, helping you break the cycle regardless of how your OCD appears.
ERP Treatment For Contamination OCD
Contamination OCD involves intense fears of becoming contaminated or spreading contamination—but feared “contaminants” can include germs, chemicals, emotions, or even other people. To feel safe, individuals may wash, clean, avoid contact, or seek reassurance.
ERP Treatment For Intrusive Violent, Sexual, and Taboo Thoughts
Intrusive violent, sexual, and taboo thoughts are unwanted, distressing mental images or urges that go against a person’s values and sense of self. These thoughts can feel alarming and lead to guilt, fear, or compulsive efforts to “prove” they’d never act on them.
ERP Treatment For Harm OCD
Harm OCD involves intrusive fears of accidentally or intentionally causing harm to oneself or others, often triggering guilt, panic, and compulsive checking or reassurance seeking. These thoughts are unwanted and distressing, not reflections of intent or desire. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) helps individuals face these fears, reduce compulsions, and relearn that thoughts of harm don’t equal danger or action.
ERP Treatment For Relationship OCD
Relationship OCD (ROCD) involves intrusive doubts and fears about one’s partner, relationship, or feelings—such as “Do I really love them?” or “What if they’re not the right one?” These thoughts create anxiety and lead to compulsions like constant reassurance seeking, comparison, or overanalyzing feelings. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) helps individuals learn to tolerate uncertainty about love and relationships, reducing obsessional doubt and allowing genuine connection to grow.
ERP Treatment For Pedophilia OCD (POCD)
Pedophilia OCD (POCD) involves intrusive, unwanted sexual thoughts or fears of being sexually attracted to or harming children. These thoughts are unwanted and distressing, not reflections of intent or desire. Common compulsive behaviors include mental checking, avoidance, or reassurance seeking. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) helps individuals with POCD face these fears safely and learn that thoughts do not reflect intent, character, or risk of acting on them.
ERP Treatment For Existential OCD
Existential OCD centers on intrusive, unanswerable questions about life, reality, death, or the meaning of existence. People with this form of OCD often get stuck in endless rumination, trying to find certainty about questions that have none. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) helps individuals learn to tolerate uncertainty and disengage from overanalyzing, allowing them to reconnect with the present moment and live more fully.
ERP Treatment For Moral or Religious Scrupulosity OCD
Moral or Religious Scrupulosity OCD involves obsessive fears of being immoral, sinful, or offending one’s faith or values. Individuals may engage in excessive praying, confessing, reassurance seeking, or mental reviewing to feel “pure” or “good enough.” Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) helps individuals face these fears while learning that uncertainty, imperfection, and doubt are normal parts of faith and morality—not signs of wrongdoing.
ERP Treatment For Sexual Orientation and Gender Themed OCD
Sexual Orientation and Gender Themed OCD involves intrusive doubts or fears about one’s sexual orientation or gender identity—such as “What if I’m actually gay?” or “What if I’m not truly the gender I think I am?” These thoughts create distress and lead to compulsive behaviors like checking feelings, monitoring physical reactions, or seeking reassurance. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) helps individuals reduce anxiety around these intrusive thoughts and accept uncertainty, allowing them to reconnect with their genuine sense of self.
ERP Treatment For "Just Right" and Perfectionism OCD
“Just Right” and Perfectionism OCD involve an overwhelming need for things to feel precise, even, or “perfect.” This can show up as arranging, repeating, or redoing tasks until they feel right, or excessive mental checking to avoid mistakes. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) helps individuals resist the urge to fix or perfect, teaching the brain to tolerate discomfort and uncertainty so that tasks can be completed without endless correction or doubt.
ERP Treatment For Responsibility OCD "checking"
Checking OCD involves repeated behaviors or mental reviews to prevent harm, mistakes, or accidents—like repeatedly verifying that doors are locked, appliances are off, or messages were written correctly. These checks provide temporary relief but reinforce doubt and anxiety over time. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) helps break this cycle by teaching you to face uncertainty and resist checking, allowing confidence and trust in your memory and actions to naturally return.
ERP Treatment For Hyperawareness or Somatic OCD
Hyperawareness or Somatic OCD centers on an obsessive focus on automatic bodily sensations or processes—such as blinking, swallowing, breathing, or heartbeat—or on being overly aware of one’s own thoughts. This heightened self-focus can make once-automatic sensations feel unbearable or constant. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) helps retrain attention and reduce anxiety by teaching you to allow these sensations or thoughts to exist without trying to control or escape them, so they fade naturally from awareness.
ERP Treatment For Real Event or False Memory OCD
Real Event OCD and False Memory OCD both center on uncertainty about something that might have happened in the past. With Real Event OCD, the person becomes stuck on an actual event, often something small, ordinary, or morally insignificant, and fears they did something wrong, harmful, or unforgivable. With False Memory OCD, the person becomes consumed by the fear that they may have done something they can’t fully remember, leading to endless mental reviewing, checking, or trying to “reconstruct” what happened. Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) helps you step out of this trap by teaching your brain that you don’t need to achieve perfect certainty about the past to move forward, and that reviewing, analyzing, and seeking reassurance only strengthens the doubt.
Accurate OCD Assessment & Diagnosis
Many people with OCD spend years in the wrong treatment before getting the right help. In our first sessions, I’ll do a thorough assessment to understand your symptoms and how OCD shows up in your life. From there, we’ll create a clear diagnosis and a structured ERP plan tailored to you, so you can finally start moving toward real recovery.
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OCD and ERP Psychoeducation
In our first few sessions, I’ll spend time providing psychoeducation, so you’ll not only understand your symptoms but also the “why” behind treatment. We’ll go over how OCD works, the cycle of obsessions, compulsions, and avoidance, and I’ll show you why ERP is so effective in breaking that cycle. Having this knowledge up front helps you feel more confident, reduces the fear of facing triggers, and gives you a clear roadmap for recovery.
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ERP Hierarchy Creation
Once you have a solid understanding of OCD and ERP, we’ll build a structured list of triggers ranked from least to most anxiety-provoking. The goal is to help you gradually face your OCD in a way that feels manageable and effective. Together, we’ll design exposures based on real situations in your life, creating a treatment plan that’s practical, personalized, and built for lasting progress.
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Structured In-session ERP Practice
We’ll choose specific exercises from your hierarchy to practice during sessions, so I can coach and support you in real time as you face anxiety-provoking thoughts and situations. With my guidance, you’ll learn how to resist compulsions and let anxiety fade naturally. Over time, these exercises help retrain your brain, reduce fear, and build lasting confidence in your ability to handle uncertainty.
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ERP Homework Exposure Practice
Homework exposures are a key part of ERP, helping you apply what you’ve learned to real-life situations. I’ll assign variations of what we practice in session so you can face OCD fears and resist compulsions in daily life. These exercises are tailored to your triggers and designed to build confidence, strengthen progress, and help you take back control from OCD.
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Fine-Tuning, Relapse Prevention, and Long-Term Success
Throughout treatment, we’ll track your progress using standard OCD assessments and adjust your plan as you improve. As symptoms decrease, we’ll shift focus toward maintaining progress and preventing relapse, essentially helping you become your own OCD specialist. By the end of therapy, you’ll have the tools and confidence to manage OCD independently and keep your progress long-term.
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What to Expect with Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) For OCD
Learn How Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy Can Help You Recover From OCD
Recovery begins with a single step. If you’re ready to start ERP therapy for OCD, I invite you to schedule a free 20-minute online consultation. We’ll discuss your symptoms, goals, and what effective treatment can look like for you. Together, we’ll take that first step toward freedom from OCD.