FAQ

The knowledge pages bring together our OCD information and resources. The OCD type catalogue can help you explore particular themes or experiences, and the FAQ offers short answers to common questions.

You can use these resources to understand OCD and find language for what you or someone close to you is experiencing.

You’re welcome to get in touch through our contact form. A brief message is enough, and we aim to reply as soon as we can.

If you’ve been waiting for a reply, please check your spam folder. If you still haven’t heard from us, feel free to follow up, as something may have gone wrong.

Learning about OCD can help you recognise how repeated questions, checking together or organising daily life around OCD rules affect your relationship. Our resources can help you understand these patterns and think about the support you offer.

Your own needs and the relationship matter too. Supporting someone with OCD does not mean becoming their therapist or taking responsibility for their recovery.

Our courses for family and loved ones explore these issues from your perspective.

We also offer consultations for family members and other loved ones who want support with their own situation.

Use the contact form to enquire about a consultation.

Contact us for current availability and the earliest appointment for the service you need.

You can seek help even if you are unsure whether you have OCD. You are welcome to contact us.

Consultations take place online. Choose a private place with a stable internet connection.

Your psychologist works from our Danish clinic.

If you are travelling abroad, discuss the practical arrangements for continuing your consultations with your psychologist, including any time difference.

Yes, your treatment can take place entirely by video. It includes your personal course, a private online course we use actively in consultations and in the work between them.

The format can make it easier to fit consultations around everyday life. When relevant, we can also work directly with situations in your own surroundings. We always agree together whether and how to involve them.

Choose a private place where other people cannot see or hear the consultation and where you can talk without interruption. Your psychologist also works from a private setting.

When arranging your consultation, we explain how to join and check your equipment. If you have a question about the connection or privacy, contact us before the appointment.

Individual OCD treatment is available from age 15 and is adapted to the young person’s everyday life and circumstances.

For younger children, we primarily offer guidance through their parents.

Yes. We offer guidance for parents and families with a child under 15.

Together, we work to understand the child’s OCD, manage specific situations in everyday life and support the child without inadvertently accommodating the OCD.

The guidance is adapted to the child and the family’s circumstances. Your child does not have to attend for you to receive support as a parent.

Yes. Parents, partners, friends and other people close to someone with OCD can have consultations of their own. This can be a single consultation or a short series, individually or together.

We focus on understanding OCD, managing difficult situations and offering support without becoming caught up in rituals or repeated reassurance.

You do not have to become the person’s therapist or take responsibility for their recovery.

Yes. A parent, friend, partner or another support person can join an online consultation when agreed with your psychologist.

This may help you feel more at ease, particularly at the beginning of treatment. Together, we consider when their involvement is helpful and when it is better for you to attend on your own.

Consultation prices and durations are listed on the fees page.

Fees are updated on 1 January and 1 August each year.

You pay for consultations yourself. We do not accept payment from insurance companies.

You do not need a referral. You can contact us directly.

Cancel or change your appointment using the contact arrangements agreed with your psychologist.

You can cancel free of charge before 12 noon (your local time) on the calendar day before your consultation. If you cancel at or after that time, the full consultation fee applies, including the charge for any extra time agreed in advance. The same deadline applies at weekends.

After each consultation, we send you a link to pay by card. Payment is due on the same day. You can choose to pay in euros, US dollars, or pounds sterling.

You pay for consultations yourself; we do not accept payment from insurance companies.

The course for adults with OCD brings together pioneering insights into OCD and new methods and techniques developed through Jesper Krogholt’s clinical work at the OCD Clinic in Denmark. It explores what visible actions and mental strategies aim to achieve: settling past doubts, easing uncertainty or discomfort now, or trying to prevent future doubt. This understanding can help you discover OCD patterns you may not have noticed before and develop new ways of working with them in everyday life.

Now in development, the flexible 26-week course has two parts. Part 1 offers a practical foundation designed to be useful on its own, with all 12 type-based tracks. Part 2 is an optional continuation, purchased separately, that builds on Part 1 and explores the purpose of your responses more deeply.

The courses are taught by Jesper Krogholt, a clinical psychologist licensed in Denmark and founder of Uncompelled and the OCD Clinic in Denmark. He has dedicated his professional career to treating OCD and has helped countless people. Through that work, he has developed pioneering insights into OCD and new methods and techniques to help people break the OCD cycle.

You learn directly from the clinician behind these approaches. Jesper turns his clinical experience into clear explanations and practical tools, helping you understand OCD’s patterns and how to work with them—whether you have OCD yourself or want to support someone close to you.

New material will be released every Friday for both the OCD course and the courses for family and loved ones. It will include reading material, exercises and short teaching videos.

No. Part 1 gives you access to all 12 type-based tracks. You can begin with the pattern you recognise in your own experience and explore another track later if several patterns are relevant to you or your OCD changes.

Each track brings together the examples and exercises needed for that particular track. You do not have to fit your experience into only one OCD theme.

No. Part 1 is designed to be useful on its own, and you do not have to commit to both parts at the outset. You can decide later whether to continue with Part 2, which is optional and purchased separately.

You do need to take Part 1 before Part 2. The second part builds on the understanding and practical work introduced in the first.

Yes. The course includes access to the Knowledge Universe from week 3 of Part 1. It brings together explanations, exercises and supplementary courses to deepen your understanding and support your course work. For example, you can explore the relationship between anxiety and OCD, learn about ADHD alongside OCD, or try mindfulness exercises for general wellbeing.

You can use the Knowledge Universe alongside either part, guided by your interests and needs. The material you need for a particular course track stays within that track.

Courses are in active development for partners, parents, siblings, friends and other people close to someone with OCD. They draw on the same models and core concepts as the course for people with OCD, helping you understand OCD and the work involved in addressing it.

The courses explore how OCD affects your relationship and everyday situations such as repeated questions or checking together. They address how to support the person you care about, including their course work where relevant, while attending to your own needs, pressures and boundaries. They also address worry, exhaustion and frustration. A shared language can help you recognise patterns together and agree helpful changes in daily life.

Yes. You can take a course for family and loved ones independently. The person you care about does not need to take our OCD course. Your course helps you understand OCD and the work involved in addressing it, while also focusing on your relationship with them, the support you offer and your own needs and boundaries.

No. You are subscribing to the general Uncompelled newsletter, and you need to confirm your email address to complete your signup. You can optionally select your course interests. Subscribing does not enrol you in a course or make a purchase.

Subscribe to the Uncompelled newsletter and confirm your email address to complete your signup and access the 20% early bird discount at launch.

You can choose course interests when you sign up, but these are optional and are not a condition for the discount.

The courses are in active development, and their course pages describe the planned content and structure.

Subscribe to the Uncompelled newsletter for OCD articles, resources and course updates. You can choose which courses interest you when you sign up. These choices are optional; you’ll still receive the general Uncompelled newsletter.

We take an exploratory approach to treatment. Together, we look at how your OCD works and try out ways of responding differently. Your questions, observations and experiences help shape the work.

What you try between consultations is a central part of treatment. We plan specific exercises together, taking your circumstances and capacity into account.

The exercises are not a test you can pass or fail. What goes well, and what proves difficult, gives us information that helps us adjust the next step.

OCD treatment can draw on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), exposure and response prevention (ERP), and cognitive and metacognitive techniques. How these methods are used depends on what keeps the particular OCD pattern going.

Cognitive behavioural therapy and ERP

CBT considers thoughts, interpretations, emotions, bodily reactions and actions together. ERP involves gradually approaching situations, thoughts or sensations that trigger OCD while practising not following its usual demands for rituals, checking, reassurance or avoidance. The exercises create opportunities to learn different ways of responding.

Visible actions are only part of this work. Thoughts, analysis, doubt and mental rituals can also function as attempts to obtain relief, certainty, safety or control. When a response brings relief, that rewarding experience can make it more likely to be repeated.

Cognitive and metacognitive techniques

Cognitive techniques explore the meaning attached to thoughts, doubt, responsibility and risk. Metacognitive techniques focus on how a person relates to thoughts and how much time, attention and control they give them. Repeatedly debating a thought or trying to resolve every doubt can itself become part of the OCD pattern.

Choosing and developing the methods

In our clinical work, the symptom theme is only a starting point. We examine what each strategy is intended to achieve and how it affects the pattern over time. The same action can be appropriate in one situation and part of OCD in another. An exercise may need adjusting if it becomes a way of seeking certainty rather than practising a different response. This understanding guides how we combine the methods.

Through our clinical work, we have also developed a range of new methods and ways of understanding OCD. We plan exercises around each person’s goals and circumstances, with a clear purpose for each step. We review what people try in everyday life, what they learn and what proves difficult, then adjust the exercises and pace to support greater freedom in responding to OCD.

Names such as Pure O, rOCD and hOCD describe themes or presentations of OCD. They can be useful for recognising experiences, but not everyone’s pattern fits neatly into a named type. No two people’s experiences are exactly alike.

The theme alone does not tell us what will help. It is also important to understand what triggers the pattern, how a person responds afterwards and the role of checking, avoidance, reassurance seeking, analysis and other strategies.

Named types can help you find relevant information, while the shared patterns across different themes help guide our understanding of OCD.

Years of clinical work focused exclusively on OCD have given us extensive experience with a wide range of themes and presentations. Working with our clients has deepened our understanding of how OCD affects everyday life and what can make change difficult. What we learn together continues to shape our methods and the knowledge we share.

Yes. OCD can occur alongside other mental health or neurodevelopmental difficulties such as ADHD, autism, depression or anxiety. This is often called comorbidity or co-occurring conditions.

An individual assessment helps clarify how the different difficulties should be understood, prioritised and addressed.

We have extensive experience with comorbidity. In our clinical work, we adapt the goals, exercises and pace to the person’s needs and circumstances. Not every difficulty needs to be addressed at once.

Many of our clients describe their experience during a course of treatment as moving from “version 1.0” to “version 2.0”. Although OCD has been difficult and burdensome, the work can lead to personal development and a new way of meeting the world.

We aim not only to reduce symptoms, but also to build resilience in relation to OCD.

In OCD, thinking and analysis can become ways of trying to obtain relief, certainty or control. You might replay a conversation to work out whether you offended someone, repeatedly examine what your feelings mean, or consider every possible consequence before making a decision. The thinking may feel necessary to prevent a mistake or avoid being responsible for something going wrong.

An answer may bring relief for a while, but another doubt can soon reopen the question: have I overlooked a detail or drawn the wrong conclusion? Each question invites more analysis. When the aim is to feel completely certain, even a reasonable answer may not seem sufficient, and the effort to resolve doubt can keep the thinking going.

OCD, overthinking and social anxiety can be different expressions of these shared mechanisms. In social situations, the analysis may focus on how others see you and whether you have behaved correctly. Doubt, self-criticism and shame can turn an ordinary interaction into something you feel compelled to examine long afterwards.

It is not unusual to feel anxious about starting therapy.

Talking to a psychologist about your OCD can feel daunting in many different ways. For example:

• Talking about distressing thoughts that you would rather not think about can in itself be anxiety-provoking
• The fear that OCD’s claims that you are a bad person will be confirmed
• The fear of being told that you do not have OCD
• The fear of being told that you do have OCD
• Social anxiety

Sometimes several of these fears are present at once, shifting around and creating pressure from different directions. You can tell your psychologist about them. Understanding what makes treatment feel difficult can be part of the work.

Exposure can be planned together with a therapist and approached gradually. It can involve discomfort, but the aim is not to create as much distress as possible or to prove that a fear is unfounded. Each exercise should have a clear purpose: to practise a different response to OCD.

Tell your therapist what feels difficult and how you respond during the exercises, including any mental checking or repeated analysis that has become part of the OCD pattern. Together, you can review what you are learning and whether the exercises serve their intended purpose, then adjust the exercises and pace.

You do not have to begin with the situation that feels hardest. Exercises can be planned with a therapist to approach relevant situations gradually while working with the usual OCD responses, including mental rituals.

Facing a situation is only one part of exposure and response prevention (ERP). For example, someone might seek reassurance before entering a feared situation, check mentally while there and repeatedly analyse it afterwards in an effort to feel certain. When these responses are part of the OCD pattern, response prevention includes practising not relying on them. The exercise therefore has a purpose beyond entering the situation: learning to respond more freely to OCD in everyday life.

It varies whether people take medication for OCD and how much it helps them. For some people, medication can reduce symptoms enough to make therapeutic work with OCD more manageable.

Whether medication is appropriate for you is a decision to discuss with a qualified prescriber, considering your symptoms, treatment preferences, possible benefits and side effects.

People often have strong views about medication. We can help you with your OCD whether or not you take it.

Previous treatment that did not help does not mean that improvement is out of reach. Through our clinical work, we have developed a range of new methods and ways of understanding OCD. These can offer further ways to approach difficulties that have persisted despite earlier treatment.

Reviewing what helped, what remained difficult and how exercises worked in everyday life can guide a more focused next step. This includes understanding the role of visible and mental strategies and whether exercises are serving their intended purpose. Earlier experiences can then help clarify what to build on, what needs to change and how to make the work manageable.

The number and frequency of consultations depend on your needs, goals, OCD pattern, other difficulties and the time and capacity you have for work between sessions.

We agree on a format together and regularly review whether the pace allows time for both consultations and practice in everyday life. The format may change as treatment progresses.