Hey guys and I'm welcome to episode 139 of the OCD stories.com podcast. Now in this episode I interview

Michelle Massey. Michelle is a therapist based in Los Angeles and we discuss

many things on this episode. We discuss compassion, some of

her tips and strategies for you guys to be more compassionate to yourselves. We discuss ERP, exposure response to French therapy, so advice for when starting ERP,

advice for sort of midway through the process. I ask her the question about as some people start to you know recover

reduce their symptoms and the compulsions and they get more time back and some

people report feeling guilt or shame about the lost time, lost opportunities, what

OCC may have taken from them, and I wanted Michelle to address that, which she does.

We talk about living with uncertainty, how her view of treatment

has or has not changed over the last three years. What she noticed about her

clients who recover much quicker? I think this is always an important question and then the

sort of usual fun questions at the end. So I enjoy this episode I think you will too and

without further ado here is Michelle. On the podcast today I have Michelle Massey

Michelle as a therapist specializing in the treatment of OCD and anxiety disorders

as well as working in private practice Michelle also works at the UCLA Adult Intensive Treatment

Program. Welcome to the show Michelle. Thank you. Thanks for having me. No, thank you

for coming on and it was great to meet you in Washington. Yes. And I got to see one of your talks but also a support group you co-facilitated.

I managed to get up at 7 a.m. when it was starting. So the first question then is why, what made

you want to become a therapist and then what made you want to treat people with

a CD? So I think my story is a little bit different in terms of what made me want to become a therapist.

I took a psychology class in high school and really enjoyed it and so decided to major that and major in that in college and then when I was in

college I realized that you really can't do anything with a degree in

...