OCD Treatment in Scottsdale & Phoenix
Comprehensive, evidence-based OCD treatment from board-certified psychiatrist Dr. Michael DePalma, DO — integrating advanced CBT training, Exposure and Response Prevention therapy, and medication management for adults in Scottsdale and Phoenix, AZ.
Schedule an Intake EvaluationOCD Treatment That Goes Beyond Surface-Level Management
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is one of the most frequently misunderstood and inadequately treated psychiatric conditions. Many adults in Scottsdale and Phoenix living with OCD have spent years in treatment that provided only partial relief — medication that reduced symptom intensity without addressing the underlying compulsive cycle, or therapy that lacked the structured, evidence-based approach that OCD specifically requires.
Dr. DePalma treats OCD with a clinically rigorous approach that combines the most evidence-supported treatments available — Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with Exposure and Response Prevention, medication management when indicated, and mindfulness-based approaches — tailored to each patient’s specific obsessional content, compulsive patterns, and treatment history.
OCD is a condition where the wrong therapeutic approach can actually reinforce the disorder rather than treat it. Effective treatment requires a provider with genuine training in the evidence base — not a general therapist applying generic techniques to a condition that has specific and well-established treatment requirements.
What OCD Actually Is
OCD is a neurobiological condition characterized by two interlocking elements — obsessions and compulsions — that create a self-sustaining cycle of distress and temporary relief that becomes progressively harder to break over time.
Obsessions are intrusive, unwanted thoughts, images, or urges that generate intense anxiety or distress. They are experienced as ego-dystonic — meaning they feel foreign, repugnant, or at odds with the person’s values and sense of self. Common obsessional themes include contamination, harm, symmetry and order, religious or moral scrupulosity, and sexual or violent intrusive thoughts — though OCD can attach to virtually any content area.
Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or mental acts performed in response to obsessions — an attempt to neutralize the anxiety they generate or prevent a feared outcome. Compulsions provide temporary relief but maintain and strengthen the obsessional cycle over time. The brain learns that the compulsion “worked” — and the demand for it grows.
Understanding this cycle is the foundation of effective OCD treatment. Treatment that does not directly address and interrupt the obsessive-compulsive cycle — regardless of how sophisticated it may appear — does not produce lasting outcomes for OCD.
Recognizing OCD in Scottsdale and Phoenix Adults
OCD is frequently underdiagnosed because its presentations vary widely and many patients experience significant shame about their symptoms. Adults presenting for OCD evaluation in Scottsdale and Phoenix commonly report:
- Intrusive, repetitive thoughts that feel impossible to dismiss or control
- Rituals or repetitive behaviors performed to reduce anxiety — checking, counting, cleaning, ordering, repeating
- Mental compulsions — reassurance-seeking in one’s own mind, reviewing, neutralizing
- Avoidance of situations, objects, or people that trigger obsessional content
- Excessive time spent on rituals — often hours per day — that interfere with daily functioning
- Significant distress about the content of intrusive thoughts — particularly thoughts that feel morally or personally unacceptable
- A persistent sense that something is not right — incompleteness, wrongness, or the feeling that something bad will happen without a specific feared outcome
- Reassurance-seeking from others — repeatedly asking for confirmation that feared outcomes have not or will not occur
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Exposure and Response Prevention — The Gold Standard for OCD
Exposure and Response Prevention — a specific application of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy — is the most extensively researched and empirically supported psychotherapeutic treatment for OCD. Decades of clinical research have established ERP as the first-line psychological treatment for OCD across presentations and severity levels.
Dr. DePalma’s training in CBT goes significantly beyond standard residency exposure. During his psychiatric residency at the University of Arizona, Dr. DePalma completed two years of intensive CBT training under Dr. Nicholas Breitborde — a distinguished professor and prolific published CBT researcher. This training emphasized the rigorous application of evidence-based CBT principles alongside medication management — a model Dr. DePalma has carried directly into clinical practice at One Psychiatry.
For Scottsdale and Phoenix patients with OCD, this means access to a psychiatrist whose CBT training was developed under the direct supervision of a leading researcher in the field — not a prescriber with passing familiarity with therapy techniques.
How ERP Works
ERP works by systematically and deliberately exposing the patient to obsessional triggers — thoughts, images, situations, or objects — while refraining from performing the compulsive response. This is not simply “facing fears.” It is a structured, graduated therapeutic process grounded in the neurobiological mechanism of habituation and inhibitory learning.
Over repeated exposures the brain learns that the feared outcome does not occur and that the anxiety generated by the obsessional trigger diminishes without the compulsion. The compulsive cycle is interrupted — not by avoiding triggers or suppressing obsessions, but by demonstrating through direct experience that the compulsion is unnecessary. New, more adaptive neural pathways are built through this process while the compulsive response patterns are allowed to weaken.
The Role of Cognitive Work
CBT for OCD also addresses the distorted beliefs that maintain the disorder — inflated responsibility, overestimation of threat, intolerance of uncertainty, perfectionism, and the belief that intrusive thoughts are meaningful or dangerous. Cognitive restructuring helps patients develop a more accurate and less distressing relationship with their own mental content.
Medication Management for OCD in Scottsdale and Phoenix
Medication plays an important role in OCD treatment for many patients — particularly those with moderate to severe symptom severity, those whose symptoms have not responded adequately to therapy alone, or those whose OCD co-occurs with depression or anxiety that requires pharmacological support.
The serotonin reuptake inhibitors — SSRIs — are the most evidence-supported pharmacological treatment for OCD, often at higher doses than those used for depression or anxiety. Dr. DePalma’s depth of training as a certified Diplomate Master Psychopharmacologist gives him the clinical expertise to navigate OCD medication management with precision — including augmentation strategies for partial responders and medication-refractory presentations.
Medication and ERP Together
The evidence base for OCD treatment consistently supports the combination of medication and ERP as producing superior outcomes to either alone for many patients. Pharmacological support can reduce the intensity of obsessional content and the anxiety it generates — lowering the activation threshold enough to allow ERP work to proceed more effectively. Dr. DePalma understands this interaction at both the biological and clinical level and uses it deliberately in treatment planning for OCD patients in Scottsdale and Phoenix.
Mindfulness and Acceptance-Based Approaches for OCD
Mindfulness and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy provide a powerful complementary framework for OCD — particularly for patients who struggle with the fusion between intrusive thoughts and their sense of self, or who experience the content of their obsessions as reflecting something dangerous or true about who they are.
ACT for OCD focuses on changing the patient’s relationship to intrusive thoughts rather than attempting to eliminate or suppress them — an approach that research has shown to be counterproductive with obsessional content. By developing psychological flexibility and the capacity to observe intrusive thoughts without being fused with them or compelled to respond to them, patients can engage more effectively with ERP and develop a more stable, less reactive relationship with their own mental experience.
Mindfulness can also facilitate the inhibitory learning that ERP depends on — by helping patients remain present with anxiety during exposures rather than mentally escaping through reassurance-seeking or distraction.
One Psychiatrist. CBT Training. Medication Expertise. One Clinical Picture.
For OCD patients in Scottsdale and Phoenix the standard model of care involves seeing a prescribing psychiatrist separately from an ERP-trained therapist. This fragmented model creates real clinical problems — medication decisions made without therapeutic context, ERP work proceeding without awareness of how medications are affecting the patient, and the patient carrying the burden of coordinating their own care between providers who may rarely if ever communicate.
At One Psychiatry, Dr. DePalma is both the prescribing physician and the CBT and ERP-trained therapist. Every appointment carries the full clinical picture. Medication and ERP work inform each other continuously. Exposures can be calibrated in real time based on a patient’s pharmacological response. There are no gaps, no miscommunication, and no coordination burden on the patient.
For OCD — a condition where the interaction between neurobiological state and psychological readiness to engage with exposures is particularly significant — this level of integration is not just convenient. It produces meaningfully better outcomes.
Location
5635 N Scottsdale Rd Suite #170, Scottsdale, AZ 85250
P: (480) 296-2048
F: (844) 965-9613
Telehealth available for established patients following in-person evaluation, with a minimum of one in-person visit per year.
Frequently Asked Questions — OCD Treatment Scottsdale & Phoenix
Do you treat OCD in Scottsdale and Phoenix? Yes. Dr. DePalma provides comprehensive OCD evaluation and treatment at One Psychiatry’s Scottsdale location, serving adults throughout the Scottsdale and Phoenix metro area.
What makes your CBT and ERP training different from other psychiatrists? Dr. DePalma completed two years of intensive CBT training during his University of Arizona residency under Dr. Nicholas Breitborde — a distinguished professor and published CBT researcher. Most psychiatrists receive minimal structured psychotherapy training during residency. Dr. DePalma’s depth of training allows him to deliver genuine ERP as a treating psychiatrist rather than referring all therapeutic work to a separate provider.
Is medication required for OCD treatment? No. Medication is evaluated on an individual basis. Many patients benefit significantly from the combination of ERP and medication. Others pursue ERP-focused treatment without pharmacological support. Dr. DePalma discusses all options at the initial evaluation and makes recommendations based on each patient’s specific clinical picture.
I’ve heard ERP is very uncomfortable. Is that true? ERP involves deliberately confronting anxiety-provoking situations without performing compulsive responses. This is inherently uncomfortable — but the discomfort is graduated, structured, and managed collaboratively. Research consistently shows that patients who engage with ERP experience meaningful, lasting reductions in OCD symptoms that medication and supportive therapy alone rarely achieve.
Can OCD be cured? OCD is a chronic condition for most patients — but it is highly treatable. Many patients achieve dramatic reductions in symptom severity and interference with appropriate treatment. Some achieve full remission. The goal of treatment at One Psychiatry is the maximum possible reduction in symptom severity and the restoration of a life that is not organized around OCD.
Do you accept insurance? One Psychiatry is a private-pay practice. Patients with PPO insurance may be able to seek out-of-network reimbursement using a superbill. → pricing