OCD treatment for children, adolescents, and young adults
OCD works in pairs: a thought that will not leave, and something a young person feels they must do to make it stop. Therapy teaches them to break that link and get their day back.
Signs of OCD in children, adolescents, and young adults
OCD often stays hidden for a long time. What families notice first is the fallout, not the rituals: mornings that start an hour early, tears at bedtime, a bathroom light left on. Naming it is a conversation with a psychologist, not a checklist. Dr. Wald's areas of specialty are a good place to begin.
In children
The rituals are usually visible: hands washed until they crack, bedtime steps repeated in a fixed order and restarted if one is missed, the same reassurance question many times a day. Families often call when a parent first declines to take part.
In adolescents
Rituals go underground: counting, silent praying, replaying a conversation to be sure nothing bad was said. What shows instead is time. Showers run long, reading takes hours, reassurance moves to texting from school. In high achievers it can pass as diligence. Intrusive thoughts frighten because they run against everything the teen values.
In young adults
Young adults more often avoid than perform. A trigger gets designed out of the day, shrinking where they will go and what they will touch. Leaving home can take an hour of checking. For many, a first appointment is the first time the pattern has a name.
Why reassurance makes OCD stronger, not calmer
OCD is a loop, not a character trait. An intrusive thought arrives with a spike of anxiety. A ritual, washing, checking, or asking a parent to promise, brings it down fast. The relief is real, and that is the trap: it teaches the brain the ritual was necessary, so the thought returns stronger.
Families get pulled in because comforting a frightened child is humane. Dr. Wald treats the loop itself, so a young person and their parents can step out of it together.
What OCD treatment looks like, step by step
Nothing starts before a young person understands what is being asked and why. Dr. Wald sets the pace with them, not for them. Still deciding? You can request a free 15 minute consultation and talk it through first.
Map the loop
Dr. Wald maps the triggers, the intrusive thoughts, the rituals both spoken and mental, and the ways the household has been drawn in. Nothing is treated as shameful, and naming it accurately is often the first relief.
Build a ladder and climb it
Exposure and response prevention starts at a step the young person picks: meeting a trigger while holding off the ritual. The ladder rises only once a step feels ordinary, with practice continuing between sessions.
Change what happens at home
Parents step back from reassurance and accommodation gradually and warmly, working from an agreed plan rather than a confrontation. Dr. Wald coordinates with schools when rituals reach the school day.
How Dr. Wald treats OCD
Care for OCD is specific work, offered in the Coral Gables office and by telehealth across Florida. It often sits alongside persistent worry and anxiety or low mood and depression, and treatment is planned around the whole picture.
Exposure and response prevention
The core of OCD treatment: meeting the trigger step by step while holding off the ritual, so the fear can settle on its own.
CBT for OCD
Cognitive-behavioral work on the beliefs that keep the loop turning, including the idea that a thought is the same as an act.
Parent training
Parents learn to step out of rituals and reassurance without a standoff, and to support practice at home between sessions.
Mindfulness skills
Practice in letting an intrusive thought arrive and pass without arguing with it, bargaining with it, or acting on it.
Motivational interviewing
For teens and young adults wary of exposure work, a collaborative look at their own reasons for taking it on.
Start OCD care in Coral Gables
Dr. Wald sees children, adolescents, and young adults at the Coral Gables office on South Dixie Highway, and by telehealth in Florida, Maryland, and PSYPACT states. A short conversation is the place to start.