Ep. 60: My IOCDF Conference Key Takeaways

Your Anxiety Toolkit - Anxiety & OCD Strategies for Everyday

Kimberley Quinlan, LMFT | Anxiety & OCD Specialist

Self-improvement, Education, Anxietymindfulnessmeditation, Mental Health, Health & Fitness

4.9 • 802 Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2018

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My IOCDF Conference Key Takeaways

International OCD Foundation IOCDF Anxiety Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Your Anxiety Toolkit ERP CBT ACT BFRBs Eating Disorder Kimberley Quinlan

One of the biggest honors I have as a therapist who treats anxiety disorders is to present at the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) annual conference. I just adore these conferences, mostly because they provide a mix of both treatment presentations and support groups for those who struggle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and for therapist who provide evidence based treatment for those who have OCD. Another amazing thing about these conferences is that they also provide support groups and presentations on Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRB’s) such as Trichotillomania (Hail Pulling) and Excoriation Disorder (Skin Picking) and Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) and also co-occuring Eating Disorders and Substance Abuse.

In this episode of Your Anxiety Toolkit, I wanted to share with you some of my reflections from running several support groups and attending some amazing presentations by some of the top treatment providers in the world. The IOCDF.org put on such an amazing event and I have to admit, this one was by far my favorite.

At this years conference, I was honored to co-facilitate a new support group called the Compassion Collective with a dear friend and colleague, Michelle Massi. Michelle and I gathered every morning at 7AM (yes, it was VERY early) to meet with attendees who wanted support with self-compassion. Each morning we provided a new compassion tool to help those who are struggling with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). This was such an beautiful experience, as we got to really see inside the minds of the attendees and hear what is getting the way of them practicing self-compassion. Interestingly, perfectionism and fear of failure were two of the key components or self-compassion sabotage (which I speak a lot about in this weeks podcast episode).

I was also honored to be a part of a presentation called “Let’s Talk about Sex Baby!” This presentation was a question and answer formatted presentation where attendees asked very intimate questions about how OCD and anxiety can impact sex. One of the most interesting themes of these presentation was just how uncomfortable people were about discussing sex with their therapist. We had a very OPEN and HONEST dialog with attendees about sex and normalized it.

Finally, I was lucky enough to get to run the Co-existing OCD and Eating Disorder group this year with Beth Brawly. Beth and I have ran this group several times and I love it SOOOO much. There is a fine line where OCD and Eating Disorders combine and we met to help attendees break down faulty views of body, health, body size, food and body image. It was so wonderful to see some very brave families join together to support their family members who are struggling.

Fore more information on the IOCDF, click here.

Lastly, this is a friendly reminder that ERP School (our online course for Exposure & Response Prevention for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and other Anxiety Disorders) is COMING SOON, so stay tuned. Sign up HERE to be on the waitlist and be alerted as soon as it is available.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Your Anxiety Toolkit, episode number 60.
0:08.5	Welcome to Your Anxiety Toolkit. I'm your host, Kimberly Quinlan. This podcast is
0:14.5	fueled by three main goals. The first goal is to provide you with some extra tools to help
0:20.0	you manage your anxiety. Second goal, to provide you with some extra tools to help you manage your anxiety.
0:21.9	Second goal, to inspire you.
0:24.5	Anxiety doesn't get to decide how you live your life.
0:27.8	And number three, and I leave the best for last, is to provide you with one big, fat virtual hug.
0:35.0	Because experiencing anxiety ain't easy.
0:39.9	If that sounds good to you, let's go.
0:52.1	Well, welcome back CBT school, community and family. I am so thrilled to be here with you again.
0:59.6	It is Monday. I am exhausted. I am just going to be here with you again. It is Monday. I am exhausted. I am just coming away from being with my wonderful clients for the day. I only just yesterday flew in from the International OCD
1:06.1	Conference weekend. And this year it was in Washington, D.C. and it was incredible. Oh my goodness. What a jam-packed
1:16.0	weekend, absolutely jam-packed. And for me personally, it was an emotional roller coaster. I'm not going to
1:25.5	lie. I have had multiple tears today of joy and exhaustion,
1:33.0	lots of big emotions after such an amazing, amazing weekend. My hope here on this episode is
1:42.5	ultimately to share with you really what I took away and what I
1:49.1	experienced because I really do believe that it can help you guys just to sort of feel very much
1:55.3	understood and like you were there as well. So let me sort of share with you that I was so honored to have the
2:04.3	opportunity to run for the first time a group that has never been offered at the OCD conference,
2:11.8	which was what we called the Compassion Collective. And this was a group that met every single morning. So Friday, Saturday and
2:21.0	Sunday, myself and Michelle Massey, a very dear friend of mine, we ran this group. And it was ultimately
2:28.8	to provide a safe place where people could come and see familiar faces each morning before they headed
	...

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