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Help for Parents with Children Suffering from OCD

Being a parent of a child that is suffering from OCD can become overwhelming and can overshadow other relationships, responsibilities, and important aspects of life. If your child has been utilizing the family system to facilitate and enable compulsive behaviors, his or her OCD can start to consume all interactions and parental energy, and can take time, resources, and attention away from other siblings.

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Feelings of anger, frustration, and confusion about what has happened to their child are not uncommon for parents to feel when their child has developed OCD. It can also be incredibly difficult to see how much OCD has taken over your child’s life, friendships, school success, joy, and energy and to feel helpless to stop this cycle or to intervene in a meaningful way. This can understandably lead to parents feeling powerless and alone.

Finding your child or adolescent effective OCD treatment can transform his or her life from one of anxiety, fear, and compulsive behavior, to one of freedom and enjoying the things they once loved, and can also allow for the transformation of your family.

OCD is a lifelong genetic condition. The sooner a child learns new tools and strategies to overcome their obsessions and compulsions, the sooner they and their family system can return to a state of normalcy. The tools and strategies that are learned during OCD treatment at The Gateway Institute can be utilized for life. This means that your child will learn the skills necessary to regain his or her immediate joy and freedom, and will also support them for life in staying out of the OCD cycle.

Psychoeducation for Parents of Children & Adolescents Suffering from OCD

By gaining a greater understanding of what OCD is, learning new skills to empower your child suffering from OCD, and learning to become a resource and support when your child’s therapist is not present, parents can become great allies in the fight to overcome OCD. Obtaining OCD treatment for a child suffering from OCD empowers both the child and parents with new tools and strategies to overcome OCD, and will help your family return to a level or stability and freedom that was present before OCD entered your life.

With All Treatment Options at Gateway, We Encourage Parents to Take Full Advantage of Gaining Psychoeducation

This education includes:

Fully understanding OCD
Understanding how OCD operates in the brain
Relieving the inner pressure parents feel to solve their child’s OCD
How to let go of trying to be a therapist and return to being a parent
How to know when their child is performing compulsive behaviors and how to respond effectively when this is happening
Identifying ways in which they could be enabling their child’s OCD
How to respond to their child in an empowering way when they are in the OCD cycle

Family Support Groups

The Gateway Institute proudly offers family support groups at specific locations to support parents and loved ones that have children, teens, or young adults suffering from OCD. These groups provide a safe and supportive place where parents and loved ones can speak openly about their experience at home living with someone with OCD and learn new tools and skills to reduce the impact of OCD in their household. This group typically meets the second Saturday of every month from 11AM-1PM at our Costa Mesa location. For more information visit our OCD Family Support page.

Ongoing Support

At The Gateway Institute, clients and parents will have life-long access to continued treatment and support. Our caring and knowledgeable staff and therapists are dedicated to helping your family through the ups and downs that are part of life with OCD. For many clients this provides security and trust in knowing that at any time, they can reach out to one of our OCD specialists and receive the ongoing help that they need. This trust helps many clients feel safe in knowing that The Gateway Institute will always be there when they are in need.

Contact The Gateway Institute to learn more about our treatment programs and family education.

Free 30 Minute Assessment

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