Posts Tagged with family and loved ones ocd support group

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Dr. Nathaniel Van Kirk Presents “Igniting Willpower: Separating Fact from Fiction in Motivation!” on Sat., Oct. 11th!

Every second Saturday of the month, from 11am to 1pm PDT, Chris Trondsen, LMFT, and Liz Trondsen host a virtual, free, Family & Loved Ones OCD Support Group. For the month of October, we are hosting a special collaboration event with OCD Southern California, an official affiliate of the IOCDF, to kick off OCD Awareness Week! This event will be for both people with OCD, as well as family members, loved ones, and spouses of people with OCD. Anyone from anywhere is able to join!

The event is on Saturday, October 11th from 11AM – 1 PM PT. If you are not currently on our email list, please email: info@ocdsocal.org and request the event Zoom link!

For our October Family & Loved Ones OCD Support Group and OCD SoCal collab, we are happy to welcome Nathaniel Van Kirk, Ph.D., recently named the Program Director of the McLean OCD Institute in Boston, MA. 

Nathaniel has prepared a presentation for attendees titled, “Igniting Willpower: Separating Fact from Fiction in Motivation!” – Nathaniel Van Kirk, Ph.D. (https://iocdf.org/providers/van-kirk-nathaniel/)

Presentation description: Getting better from OCD is challenging and takes a lot of motivation and dedication. This talk will first debunk some common motivational myths that can lead to burn out and hopelessness. After addressing these common myths, the talk will then provide attendees with strategies for building motivation around OCD treatment. If you are struggling with motivation in your own recovery, you will not want to miss this presentation! Additionally, this presentation will enable family members, loved ones, and caregivers to support their loved one while they implement these tools to make it more likely the sufferer in their life to build motivation. The talk will also discuss how to stay motivated as a loved one experiences the inevitable ups and downs of OCD treatment.

You do not want to miss this presentation! OCD Awareness Week 2025 is dedicated to educating the public on what OCD truly is and this event will kick off awareness week. Feel free to invite anyone you feel would benefit from this presentation. You do not have to be in California to attend this free, virtual event; it is for anyone, anywhere.

We look forward to seeing you at the free, virtual event this Saturday! Please email us with any questions you may have and if you are not on our mailing list, please email us requesting the link for the October 11th event: info@ocdsocal.org! We will see you at 11am on October 11, 2025!

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Attend Our Free, Virtual Family & Loved Ones OCD Support Group This Saturday, September 13th at 11am PDT!

Join us for our September support group this Saturday, September 13 from 11AM – 1 PM PDT.  To receive the Zoom link for the support group, please email: info@ocdsocal.org

For our September Family & Loved Ones OCD Support Group, we are happy to welcome Kimberley Quinlan, LMFT, one of the leading voices in the OCD community. Besides having a successful private practice specializing in OCD and related disorders, she also has a popular podcast, “Your Anxiety Toolkit.”

She joins us as both a clinician and a mom with personal experience of what to do when a loved one is suffering. Titled “From Loved One to Loved One: What to Do When Your Loved One is Struggling,” Kimberley will walk through what she did when her daughter recently had a sudden and intense onset of various mental health struggles. Kimberley will lay out exactly how she handled her daughter’s crisis situation-how she jumped in and found the right resources and the right therapist to help her daughter. She will also share what she does now to help her daughter maintain her wellness. She will give you tangible steps and go-to directions of what to do to help your loved one find and navigate resources that will start him/her on a road to recovery.

Then Kimberley will discuss how she navigated her own OCD and PTSD that came about watching her daughter struggle. This part of her presentation will help you, the loved one, learn to manage your own anxiety and give self-care tips on managing the impact on the supporter of someone with OCD.

Lastly, beyond her personal experience, in her role as a licensed clinician, she will discuss what your roles are to initiate action and create a plan to help your loved one be open to, and get, mental health treatment. She will also stay for the Q & A where she will answer any of your questions!

Join us as we help you create a treatment and action plan to support your loved one with OCD, as well as get your questions answered!

In order to foster a safe community, we do not record the support group. This allows attendees the opportunity to share their experiences and ask questions in a safe space. We encourage you to attend or listen in to the support group live on Saturday.

To reach Kimberley Quinlan’s website and for her bio, please visit: Kimberley Quinlan – Therapy & Counseling for OCD & Eating Disorders

Email us at: info@ocdsocal.org for Saturday’s Zoom link and we hope to see you there this Saturday, September 13th at 11am PDT!

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Join us this Saturday, July 19th, from 11am to 1pm PT for our July virtual, Family & Loved One’s OCD Support Group!

We are excited to hold a special edition of our monthly family and loved ones OCD Support Group this Saturday, July 19, from 11 AM to 1 PM PT. We typically have our support group every second Saturday of the month, but last Saturday, your group co-facilitators, Chris Trondsen, LMFT, And Liz Trondsen, were presenting at the IOCDF’s 30th annual OCD conference. It was great to meet many of you there and hear that our support means so much to you! So, to make up for missing last week, we are actually holding the July support group this Saturday, July 19 from 11 AM to 1 PM. If you would like to get the link to this Saturday’s support group, and are already not on our mailing list, please email us at: info@ocdsocal.org and provide all the email addresses you would like the Zoom link emailed to.

We are bringing on a special guest doctor, Stephen Poskar (https://www.ocdnyc.com), a psychiatrist practicing in New York. Dr. Poskar recently led the International OCD Foundation’s launch of updated treatment guidelines https://iocdf.org/ocd-treatment-guide/. These guidelines explain to the public the frontline, gold standard, and evidence-based treatments for obsessive compulsive disorder, both through medication and other psychopharmacology interventions, as well as appropriate behavioral interventions.

For this Saturday’s presentation, Dr. Stephen Poskar and Chris Trondsen, a licensed therapist specializing in the treatment of OCD and related disorders, will team up to go over those treatment guidelines. Our goal is to have a discussion on what families should expect when first seeking out treatment, what treatment should look like as it progresses and then the final stages of treatment. We will speak based on the guidelines, as well as years of clinical practice.

Our goal for you as an attendee is to get a good solid understanding of what to expect if you or a loved one is first seeking out treatment, is currently in treatment or if you are wrapping up treatment or cutting back on sessions. All participants should have a solid understanding of the frontline treatments for OCD, what to expect in each stage of treatment, and what new research is on the horizon.

For this support group, we want to give you plenty of time to share your story and ask questions. We will be leaving plenty of time for questions and answers so you may ask any personal medication or clinical questions. This group is open to family members, spouses, siblings, parents, and loved ones of someone with OCD, or for clinicians wanting to learn more, or people with OCD and related disorders!

We look forward to seeing you this Saturday. Below is Dr. Stephen Poskar’s bio and then the zoom link to join us this Saturday. We’re excited to see you there!

Dr. Poskar is one of the nation’s leading experts on the treatment of OCD and Related Disorders.  He is a member of the Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board of the International OCD Foundation. He also serves on the faculty of the IOCDF Behavior Therapy Training Institute.  Dr. Poskar co-founded OCD New York, a charity whose mission is to help all those affected by Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Related Disorders to live full and productive lives.

Dr. Poskar is one of the few clinicians in the country with expertise in using both medication and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to treat OCD and Related Disorders.  Patients are commonly referred to Dr. Poskar by their individual therapists so that he may treat them with medication.  In these cases Dr. Poskar works closely with each patient’s therapist because he views this collaborative approach to be essential for the provision of the best possible care.

Dr. Poskar is medically licensed in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Connecticut and Virginia.

If you would like to get the link to this Saturday’s support group, and are already not on our mailing list, please email us at: info@ocdsocal.org and provide all the email addresses you would like the Zoom link emailed to. We look forward to seeing you this Saturday!

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Stronger Together: A Team Approach to OCD Treatment. Join the Free, Virtual Event Saturday, June 14, from 11am to 1pm PT!

We know that OCD is a debilitating disorder and, in order to get better, you need a support team. This upcoming Saturday, June 14, from 11 AM to 1 PM PT, we are putting together an all-star panel consisting of people that represent different parts of a treatment recovery team. This panel will help attendees understand their role and the importance of available resources. This panel will consist of clinicians treating OCD, a psychiatrist, people with OCD, as well as parents, family members, and loved ones of people with the disorder.

There are two ways to join the event. If you are NOT currently on our mailing list and do not receive our email updates, please email: info@ocdsocal.org, and ask for the June 14th Zoom link. Please include all the email addresses you would like the Zoom link to go to. If you ARE ALREADY on our mailing list and DO receive our email updates, we are already sending you the Zoom link on Wednesday, June 11th, and you do not have to do anything additional except just show up when the event begins!

At OCD SoCal, we have been running a free, family and loved one’s support group for the past 13 years every second Saturday of the month. The support group and OCD Southern California are collaborating to bring you this special event!

Our all-star panel includes both experts in the field and people impacted by OCD. Lauren Rosen, LMFT, is a licensed OCD specialist and founder of “The Obsessive Mind” treatment center (https://theobsessivemind.com), and Adam Frank, MD, is a psychiatrist at USC and is on the OCD SoCal Board of Directors (https://iocdf.org/providers/frank-adam-c/); they are both OCD-specialized clinicians in the field. Andrew Cohen, LMFT and Danielle Cohen, LMFT (https://www.cohenocdtherapy.com/) are both licensed OCD clinicians who also have OCD. Additionally, they are married to each other and are representing the role of spouses on our event’s panel. Shannon (Switzer) Jakubowski has OCD and has been receiving evidence-based treatment for the disorder. She will share her personal experience with OCD and how treatment has allowed her to work for NAMI San Diego and be on the OCD SoCal Board of Directors (https://ocdsocal.org/about-us/board-of-directors/). The role of parents is very important when supporting a loved one with OCD, and Carrey Smalley and Matt Garcia will discuss how they both supported their young adult sons navigate treatment and how they now support them as they thrive in their adult lives. Finally, Austin Kang, a 17-year-old high school junior, is a sibling of someone with OCD. His older brother has OCD and received therapy. He will share the role of siblings in OCD treatment.

The panel will be moderated by Chris Trondsen, LMFT, a clinician who also has OCD, and his mom, Liz Trondsen. They both have navigated this journey and will ask questions valuable to anyone who is impacted by OCD and related disorders. They both serve on the board of OCD Southern California (https://ocdsocal.org/about-us/board-of-directors/).

We will start with the panelists having an open, moderated, roundtable discussion about everyone’s role in OCD treatment and how each discipline brings something special to the team. Then we will spend a majority of the time on a Q&A to allow you to ask questions to help navigate your own recovery journey. It’s a major event with a lot of expertise that you don’t want to miss!

On Wednesday, June 11th, we will send out an email with the Zoom link for the event and also have the list of all the speakers. We will re-send the Zoom link early on the morning of the event on June 14th, so if you sign up after the 11th, you will receive the link the morning of the event. We hope to see you there on Saturday, June 14th!

In order to foster a safe community, we do not record the support group. This allows attendees the opportunity to share their experiences and ask questions in a safe space. We encourage you to attend or listen in to the support group live on Saturday.

We look forward to seeing you at the event! If you would like to attend, please email info@ocdsocal.org and include any email addresses you want the Zoom link for the event to be sent to. Reminder, if you are already on our mailing list and receive emails from us, we are automatically sending out the link to our subscribers!