Posts Tagged with mental health

Published

Join us Saturday, April 11th at 11am PT for a free, virtual Family & Loved One’s Support Group with an “Ask an Expert” Panel!

Chris Trondsen, LMFT, a clinician with OCD, and his mom, Liz Trondsen, are excited to remind you about our April, virtual, free Family and Loved Ones OCD Support Group. It will be held this Saturday, April 11 for two hours, from 11 AM – 1 PM PST. This support group is every second Saturday of the month, from 11am to 1pm Pacific time. It is a free, virtual support group available to anyone from anywhere!

To join the support group, email info@ocdsocal.org and simply request the event’s Zoom link or for more information!

For the April support group on the 11th, we are featuring an “Ask an Expert” panel of clinicians and individuals impacted by OCD who have years of experience with OCD recovery and treatment. This “Ask an Expert” panel features OCD therapist / specialist Kevin Foss, MFT, who runs the California OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center, as well as hosts the “Fearcast” podcast. The panel will also feature psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Siegel, who owns a private practice and is an ivy-league trained clinician who also has seen patients right here at USC. Ethan Smith, an OCD advocate who lives with the disorder, has been the face of OCD recovery for many years and hosts the “Community Conversations” livestream for the International OCD Foundation. Finally, the panel also features our very own Liz Trondsen, a mother of a son with OCD. Liz was crucial in helping her son recover and is both a board member of OCD Southern California and has co-facilitated this group for 13 years.

For the first half of the 2-hour support group, these four experts have spent time evaluating their work and lives to highlight their top 5 pieces of wisdom to help your loved one get better. They will share what they wish they knew at your stage of the recovery process, helping a loved one overcome this disorder, and you will leave with these tips to streamline your family’s recovery process.

For the second half of the support group, we will then open it up for a huge Q&A, ensuring we get to every question! You will be able to ask the questions in the chat, publicly or privately, or ask live on camera. No pressure to ask a question, we know many of the questions asked from others in a similar situation will help your family’s recovery.

Learn more about the expert panel here:

Kevin Foss, MFT: https://calocd.com/about-ocd-anxiety-therapy-orange-county-fullerton-group/about-kevin-foss/

Dr. Jennifer Siegel: https://www.jennifersiegelpsychiatry.com

Ethan Smith: https://iocdf.org/blog/2025/06/11/the-ballad-of-ethan-smith/;

 https://iocdf.org/blog/2025/06/17/2025-iocdf-award-winners/

Liz Trondsen: https://ocdsocal.org/about-us/board-of-directors/

We will see you this Saturday, April 11th, from 11 AM – 1 PM PST!

The event is open to loved ones, family members and spouses of someone with OCD, as well as people with OCD—or anyone else interested.

To join the support group, email info@ocdsocal.org and simply request the event’s Zoom link or for more information!

Published

Free, Virtual Event: An Overview of Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD): Assessment, Diagnosis & Treatment by Chris Trondsen, LMFT!

https://www.ocdnc.org/ocd-lecture-series

OCD Southern California Vice President, Chris Trondsen, LMFT, will guest present for a fellow affiliate’s event: OCD North Carolina’s OCD (and related disorders) Lecture Series. This lecture series is a free, virtual event, and Chris will be the guest on Tuesday, March 17th at 7pm ET.

To sign up for the event to get the Zoom link, please visit: https://www.ocdnc.org/ocd-lecture-series. The lecture will be on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, from 7-8pm ET (4-5pm PT). You’ll receive a Zoom link / reminder in advance of the meeting. To contact OCD North Carolina, please visit: https://www.ocdnc.org/contact-us or you can DM them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ocdnc/

This month’s lecture will feature Chris Trondsen, MS, LMFT, presenting “An Overview of Body Dysmorphic Disorder: Assessment, Diagnosis, and Treatment.” Chris Trondsen, LMFT, is a BDD and OCD specialist, a member of the IOCDF’s BDD Special Interest Group (SIG), has presented at conferences around the world on the topic including the BDD Foundation’s Conference in the UK, and has been featured on podcasts discussing BDD. Additionally, he has BDD himself.

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is an OCD-related disorder where an individual fixates on their appearance, often focused on particular body parts, and feel they look ugly, deformed, and are not deserving of love or affection. They often camouflage their appearance, isolate, withdraw, and seek out cosmetic interventions to fix their perceived appearance “flaws.” Visit: the IOCDF’s BDD website for more information on BDD.

Chris Trondsen’s presentation will focus on how to recognize BDD, how clinicians can diagnose it, what makes BDD unique among other image disorders, the diagnostic criteria one must meet to receive a diagnosis of BDD, the treatment of BDD, and some of his personal experiences with the disorder. It will be followed by a Q&A!

We hope many of you will join or pass it on to anyone who may find information on BDD useful. We will see you there! To sign up for the event to get the Zoom link, please visit: https://www.ocdnc.org/ocd-lecture-series. The lecture will be on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, from 7-8pm ET (4-5pm PT). You’ll receive a Zoom link / reminder in advance of the meeting.

To contact OCD North Carolina, please visit: https://www.ocdnc.org/contact-us or you can DM them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ocdnc/

Published

Register Today for OCD SoCal’s Saturday, May 30th, 10am – 3pm, In-Person Speaker Series!

https://ocdspeakerseries.eventbrite.com

Register Today for OCD SoCal’s Saturday, May 30th, 10am – 3pm, In-Person Speaker Series!

OCD Southern California is happy to announce that registration is now open for the 2026 OCD SoCal Speakers Series!

We are also pleased to announce that we will be offering Continuing Education credit for professionals!

To register for this event, click on: https://ocdspeakerseries.eventbrite.com.

What is new this year is that OCD SoCal is holding one Speakers Series event in one central location at Orange Coast College! We invite everyone in Southern California to join us under one roof!

This low-cost, in-person event will feature presentations by local, Southern California OCD treatment providers. They will facilitate panels and presentations on OCD and related disorders. This will also be an excellent opportunity to meet and connect with others in similar situations as you and your family in the local OCD community.

These events are for individuals with OCD, their family members and loved ones, mental health providers, students and the general public. Talks for the general public will be presented throughout the day.

Ticket Prices:

Early Bird Tickets (ends April 12): $10.00

General Admission (ends May 14): $15.00

May 15 – May 30: $18.00

We are pleased that we are able to provide three CE credits for clinicians (LMFT, LPCC, LCSW and psychologists). Please register using the Professional Ticket at a cost of $45.00.

Beverages and a catered lunch will be provided. Parking is free.

More information will be provided soon on the agenda, the program and the speakers on the Speaker Series page on our website: ocdsocal.org/speakerseries

For further information on the Speakers Series, please contact us through email at info@ocdsocal.org.

Once again, we will be hosting one Speaker Series event this year in a central location and invite all of the Southern California OCD community to join us and connect in one location!

To register for this event, click on: https://ocdspeakerseries.eventbrite.com.

Published

Join Us on Saturday, March 14 for our free, virtual Family & Loved Ones OCD Support Group!

OCD Southern California board members Chris Trondsen, LMFT, a clinician with OCD, and his mom, Liz Trondsen, are excited to invite you to our March, virtual, free Family and Loved Ones OCD Support Group. 

It will be held this Saturday, March 14 for two hours, from 11 AM – 1 PM PST.

Brooke Miller will be joining us to discuss her life experience as a person with OCD. Email info@ocdsocal.org to request the Zoom link!

Brooke has lived with OCD since childhood and has experienced multiple subtypes, including contamination, perfectionism, moral scrupulosity, and relationship OCD. Her journey has included ERP treatment, eating disorder recovery, and navigating additional diagnoses like panic disorder, Bipolar II, and PTSD.

She is a parent of two children with OCD, her 13-year-old son (also diagnosed with PANDAS) and her 11-year-old daughter who was recently diagnosed. She speaks from both lived experience and the ongoing reality of parenting kids with OCD.

She is a registered nurse, an International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) Advocate, President of an IOCDF affiliate: OCD Wisconsin, and a presenter with NAMI’s Ending the Silence program.

She will discuss these topics:

– What OCD can actually look like in kids (beyond stereotypes)

– Parenting a child with OCD while also managing your own OCD

– How to support kids through ERP (and manage accommodations vs. support)

– Navigating school, family dynamics, and daily life with OCD

– The emotional impact on parents/caregivers (guilt, fear, burnout)

– Hope and recovery and what progress really looks like

Please join us this Saturday for a wealth of information on both living with OCD and parenting children with OCD! 

We will see you this Saturday, March 14th from 11 AM -1 PM PST!

The event is open to loved ones, family members and spouses of someone with OCD, as well as people with OCD—or anyone else interested. Email info@ocdsocal.org to request the Zoom link!