Ep. 160: Embracing Uncertainty with Dr. Jonathan Grayson
Your Anxiety Toolkit - Practical Skills for Anxiety, Panic & Depression
Kimberley Quinlan, LMFT | Anxiety & OCD Specialist
4.9 • 882 Ratings
🗓️ 15 October 2020
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome back to another episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit. Today on the podcast, I am so excited to interview Dr. Jonathan Grayson, a psychologist who has been specializing in the treatment of OCD for more than 40 years. He is also the author of Freedom from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and founder of The Grayson LA Treatment Center for Anxiety and OCD. In this interview, Dr. Grayson discusses the power of embracing uncertainty in the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
In the beginning of our conversation, Dr. Grayson discusses how he explains OCD to his new clients. He shares that the core of OCD is trying to be absolutely certain and that the goal of treatment is to learn to live with that uncertainty in the same way that we live with all of the many uncertainties of life.
We then go on to discuss the ways he helps motivate his clients to do ERP and to begin embracing that uncertainty. He has his clients fill out a form that asks certain questions including the one that he finds most critical "Why would I take this risk?" He also has his clients write down "What have you lost to OCD?" "How have you hurt the people you love because of OCD?" and "What do you hope to do with your life when you are free from OCD?" I found another question he asks his clients to be particularly helpful. When asking clients to begin embracing uncertainty and to take the risk that X may happen, he asks them to imagine how you will attempt to cope if the most terrible thing you can imagine actually happens.
We also have a great discussion about mindfulness and compassion and how he uses both in his practice. This interview is full of so many fantastic insights. I learned so much myself and I hope that you will find it as enjoyable and informative.
FreedomfromOCD.com- You can purchase Freedom from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as well as download Dr. Grayson's forms.
The Grayson LA Treatment Center for Anxiety & OCD
ERP School, BFRB School and Mindfulness School for OCD are open for purchase. Click here for more information.
Additional exciting news! ERP School is now CEU approved which means that it is an accredited course for therapists and mental health professionals to take towards their continuing education credit hours. Please click here for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Your Anxiety Toolkit, episode number 160. |
| 0:10.4 | Welcome to Your Anxiety Toolkit. I'm your host, Kimberly Quinlan. This podcast is fueled by three |
| 0:17.3 | main goals. The first goal is to provide you with some extra tools to help you manage |
| 0:22.3 | your anxiety. Second goal, to inspire you. Anxiety doesn't get to decide how you live your life. And number |
| 0:30.0 | three, and I leave the best for last, is to provide you with one big, fat virtual hug, because |
| 0:37.2 | experiencing anxiety ain't easy. If that sounds good to you, |
| 0:41.0 | let's go. Well, welcome back. It is OCD Awareness Week, and it's a week where I really love just getting out there and spreading |
| 0:58.3 | information about OCD and about the treatment of OCD. And there is no better, no better |
| 1:05.8 | guest today than to have the guest we have, which is Dr. Jonathan Grayson. He's insisted that we call |
| 1:13.4 | him John. And today I had a really fun, really great conversation with him about mostly topics |
| 1:21.6 | that I have just been wanting to pick his brain on for quite some time. We talk about motivation |
| 1:27.1 | in recovery. We talk about how to really |
| 1:32.0 | help a person get ready and prepared for ERP. We talk about mindfulness. We talk about compassion. |
| 1:40.5 | We talk about the really key points to keep somebody's mindset in the game for |
| 1:46.6 | ERP. It was such a great episode. And as a clinician, I'm not going to lie, I learned a lot myself. |
| 1:52.2 | And I really feel like I just love getting those, you know, recaps and going over the main points |
| 1:58.1 | and really bringing at home with all of that really good, good stuff |
| 2:01.9 | that John likes to share with us. So thank you so much, Dr. Jonathan Grayson, for coming on. |
| 2:08.7 | I am going to get straight to the show. In the meantime, though, please, everybody, go on to social |
| 2:14.2 | media this week. We're going to do a ton of giveaways and some, you know, Q&As and some maybe fun things |
| 2:22.4 | that might be a bit of a surprise if you stick around. |
| 2:25.6 | Go on to social media. |
... |
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