INTENSIVE OUTPATIENT PROGRAM

IOP

Whats Unique About Our IOP?

Our program

Our IOP is “tailored exclusively to you, only YOU” and “we don’t talk about exposure, we do exposure.”

You schedule your intensive sessions based on your work or school’s schedule.
(mornings, afternoon, weekend and evening appointments available)
You have a single therapist in charge of your treatment plan.
You have access to your therapist for exposure coaching 24/7.
Your OCD, anxiety and related symptoms are targeted strategically in every session.
You commit to 60-hours minimum, 4 weeks minimum.
You participate on 180-minutes sessions, five days a week.
Parent coaching sessions are required when working with children and teens.

Why Treatment for OCD is Important

The benefits

Children and teens struggling with severe OCD are at risk of dropping important activities such as attending school, spending time with friends, and basic self-care including eating, grooming, etc.

Adult OCD sufferers are almost four times more likely to be unemployed and are at risk for developing other comorbid condition such as depressions, social phobia, panic disorder, phobias, or substance abuse (Rasmussen & Tsuang, 1986; Karno et al., 1988; Koran, Thienemann, & Davenport, 1996).

How To Start IOP

Getting started

Schedule your intake session.
You can call or email us to schedule an intake session.

During the intake session, a specialized clinical interview is conducted, specific OCD assessments are administered, and if necessart, authorization to consult with significant others and/or other professionals is requested.

Then, you and your intake therapist will discuss treatment options including frequency, tentative length of treatment, and payment options.

What Does The IOP Treatment Look Like?

The treatment

Our program is based on Exposure Response Prevention (ERP), the most effective treatment for treating OCD and anxiety problems for children, teens, and adults, based on clinical research over the last 20 years.

Exposure involves gradually approaching, at your or your child’s pace, situations, thoughts, images, or urges that are triggering in daily life without engaging in any compulsive behaviors (counting, touching, reassurance seeking, washing, tapping, etc). Our clients always “choose” what to face, we coach them how to do it.

Pediatric Intensive Program

Pediatric IOP

We’re very excited to offer a specialized Pediatric Intensive program for children ages 5-12, struggling with anxiety and OCD.

Our intensive pediatric program is a commitment of 30-hours of therapy, scheduled over a minimum of three weeks, with each session lasting 2-hours each.

Our intensive pediatric sessions are unique by nature because they include parent coaching sessions in-vivo and regular parent-coaching sessions.

In a parent coaching session in-vivo, parents will collaborate with the clinician and their kid together, so they can learn directly from the clinician how to support their kids. Super-cool, right?

Parents and kids will receive all the support they need to tackle anxiety, worries, fears, and obsessions!

Treatment outcomes

Outcomes

16-year old adolescent.

Obsessions: fears of stabbing his mother, being of a different sexual orientation, cursing obscenities.

Number of sessions: 20 (180-minutes each)

CY-BOCS and Y-BOCS score ranges: 0-7 sub-clinical; 8-15 mild; 16-23 moderate; 24-31 severe; 32-40 extreme.

This chart shows clients’ OCD severity scores as measured by the Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS).

9-year old child.

Obsessions: fear of stopping breathing.

Number of sessions: 39 (120-minutes each)

CY-BOCS and Y-BOCS score ranges: 0-7 sub-clinical; 8-15 mild; 16-23 moderate; 24-31 severe; 32-40 extreme.

This chart shows clients’ OCD severity scores as measured by the Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS).

34-year old adult.

Obsessions: fears of making mistakes.

Number of sessions: 32 (120-minutes each)

CY-BOCS and Y-BOCS score ranges: 0-7 sub-clinical; 8-15 mild; 16-23 moderate; 24-31 severe; 32-40 extreme.

This chart shows clients’ OCD severity scores as measured by the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS).

Most common obsessions and compulsions

obsessions

harm OCD
common obsessions: fear of causing harm or violently attacking others.
common compulsions: avoidance of people that could be harm, objects that could be used, reassurance.

pedophile obsessions
common obsessions: fear of being sexually attracted to children.
common compulsions: checking for arousal in triggering situation, excessive mental review of behavior around children or teen.

religious and moral ocd, scrupulosity OCD
common obsessions: fear of blasphemy or being morally imperfect
common compulsions: excessive mental review of perceived moral faults, compulsive prayer.

just right OCD
common obsessions: fear of not being able to tolerate uncomfortable, unpleasant feelings.
common compulsions: re-arranging/ordering behaviors until it feels “right.”

contamination OCD
common obsessions: fear of all types of contaminants such as germs, chemicals, etc.
common compulsions: excessive washing, checking specific areas.

hypochondria or Health OCD
common obsessions: fear of having or catching illnesses e.g. cancer, HIV, flu, etc.
common compulsions: excessive scanning for body for symptoms, excessive information seeking, reassurance seeking from medical professionals.

gay OCD, or HOCD
common obsessions: intrusive thoughts related to sexual orientation e.g. am I gay?
common compulsions: checking for sexual arousal or body noise in triggering situations, avoidance of triggering situations, excessive mental review of sexual themes.

relationship OCD
common obsessions: fear of not being in loved, not choosing the right partner.
common compulsions: mental checking of love memories, mental checking of qualities of relationship.

hyperawareness OCD, somatosensory OCD
common obsessions: fear of not properly breathing, blinking, swallowing, or other semi-voluntary behaviors
common compulsions: excessive attention to body changes, excessive monitoring of a micro change in the body.

Frequently Asked Questions about the IOP

FAQ

Where are IOP sessions held?

Our office located in Walnut Creek, Virtual or In-Home sessions are available (location may vary depending on primary clinician)

How soon can I start IOP?

We do our best to start our IOP as soon as possible, after an intake evaluation has been conducted. As we are boutique practice, we do require approximately 2 months notice for clients to begin IOP. Depending on current availability, we can accommodate people within a month or less.

Are times for the IOP set to be consistent each day?

Our IOP is 1:1, individualized so we do our best to accommodate any scheduling requests, however scheduling requests are not guaranteed. *When an IOP is booked with at least 2 months in advance, we can certainly offer more options with scheduling.

If needed, can I miss days or switch times on certain days?

Given the importance of maximizing every intensive session, secure ongoing learning of exposure skills and the logistics of making changes in our schedule when offering an IOP, sessions can not be rescheduled or missed. *Please note if IOP sessions are canceled, they are not refunded.

Is IOP only 4 weeks? What if additional sessions are needed?

We have facilitated many intensive treatments in 4 weeks and the longest IOP has been 6 months. It really depends on a person’s ability to manage fears, worries, and obsessions as their treatment progress.We certainly do our best to teach exposure skills to all our client and keep track of progress on a weekly basis. ; We use standard psychological measurements on a weekly basis to measure a client’s progress and determine next steps in terms of treatment such as the Penn Worry Questionnaire, Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, Yale-Obsessive Compulsive Scale, Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) and others as needed.

Do parents attend IOP Sessions?

For teens, there is no need for parents to attend IOP sessions; we offer parent coaching sessions outside of the IOP, which can be booked directly on our website.
For Pediatric intensive treatments, we offer parent coaching sessions, once a week as part of the intensive treatment

After the 4 week IOP, should I continue sessions weekly?

At the end of an IOP; a discharge plan is completed and it includes frequency of future sessions.

Online Courses

Home-study programs

You can learn actionable, compassionate and research-based skills from the comfort of your own home and at your pace.

Each online class includes high-quality videos, worksheets, and audio-recorded exercises.

Learn more

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Why our clients love working with us

testimonials

therapy schedule, get scheduled, ACT Coaching

"I am very grateful for finding Dr Zurita. She is responsible for teaching my son skills that have changed his life socially and enabled him to leave home and attend an out-of-state university. This was the dream of a lifetime for him and it would not have been possible without her help. Her guidance has also made it possible for him to live a much richer life, full of experiences he would have never considered, prior to his time meeting with Dr. Zurita.

I encourage parents to start this process much sooner, if they sense their child is having difficulty at a social level. Had I understood what he has been going through all of these years, I would have started the process much earlier, so that his prior social experiences and especially those in school, would have been much fuller ....

"Working with Patricia Zurita Ona has changed and saved my life. I have struggled off and on for years with sever anxiety disorder and OCD . I have been to therapy throughout the years and have found some helpful but nothing really got to the core of the problem. I often felt crazy and that my incredible fear and my phobias would remain with me thorough my life, I would not drive on the freeway, eat certain things and had constant catastrophic thinking, thus creating a lot of depression.

I needed Cognitive Behavioral Therapy which I saw advertised on many therapists’ websites. When I would call most of them they said they offered it and specialized with Anxiety Disorder/ OCD which was not the case. I had felt alone, hopeless and frustrated for the past 9 years. Never feeling like I was getting the help I needed. It was not until I started meeting with Patricia that I actually started to feel better and feel as if I had control over my life and started to live again ...

“Patricia and her team have completely changed my life! I cannot express my gratitude enough.

She helped me craft values and goals I wanted to have in my relationships, and walked me through each step of how to get there. Her methods are simple, manageable, and make sense when you are upset. I’ve been to therapists who have told me to take deep breaths, visualize calming colors, rip paper, go for a walk or scream in to a pillow when im angry. But in the moment, when im soooo angry, none of these world work. I would forget to do them, or I would already be so angry, that they were ineffective to help me calm down. Patricia’s methods are not only EXTREMELY effective, but they are easy to do, they make sense in the moment, and they bring about radical change when you apply them ...

“I do not know how it reflects on my credibility should I happen to brag about being a seasoned vet when it comes to therapists and mental wellness pursuits. Regardless, I am. And on top of that, I also happen to be a health care practitioner myself. This means, for the purposes of a review, that when I walk into a new Doctor’s office, there is an additional dimension of critiquing for me to process. I would never willingly put myself under the guidance and care of a Doctor who did not 1) Impress me as a capable and honest caregiver and 2) Impress me as a professional colleague.

– Empathy
– Knowledge
– Professionalism
– Respect

I think that these are the basic bulletpoints that strike me when I consider why I think so highly of Patricia. Dr. Zurita takes NOTHING more seriously than the pursuit of her profession. Except possibly you, the patient.

Some therapists really care.

Other therapists are extremely knowledgeable.

Very few therapists are both. Patricia Zurita Ona is one of those very few.”

"I have referred several of my most challenging patients to Dr. Patricia Zurita-Ona, and been extremely impressed both with her clinical skills and humanity. I recommend her most highly. John Melbourne McGraw, M.D. melmcgraw.net."

“Dr. Patricia Zurita Ona truly cares about her clients. Behavior therapy with her has benefited myself and my husband regarding my obsessive compulsive behavior. She has a gentle and kind approach and I would recommend her to others.”

“I was referred to Patricia Zurita Ona from my son’s psychiatrist for cognitive behavioral therapy treatment of his obsessive compulsive disorder (ocd) and anxiety which rose to a level which was out of control. Dr. Zurita Ona is very skilled at working with teens who suffer from anxiety, especially related to academic success and test anxiety. She helped my son learn coping mechanisms and stress reducing strategies to control his level of anxiety. Dr. Zurita Ona introduced my son to a great stress relieving app which involves deep breathing and meditation. She has an amazing ability to connect with teens and get them to open up about their struggles, create realistic plans of attack and create goals so they can lead joyful lives and not be so burdened with their stress. We saw her weekly for about 1-2 years and my son’s sessions with her were very beneficial to not only him, but our entire family as his stress was causing tension for us all. Dr. Zurita Ona explained to me why my son had certain behaviors and ways to help him learn new strategies to cope with his anxiety. If you have a teen who needs help to learn how to manage and control stress and anxiety, schedule a session with Dr. Zurita Ona! I highly recommend her services!”

Learn more about different types of OCD

obsesions

Superthinkers: How laughter can help you better understand yourself (1 min read)

by ebbehaviortherapycenter

Pure is a comedy drama fictional adaptation of Rose Cartwright's memoirs about experiencing obsessive compulsive disorder. The show follows 24-year old, Marnie, who in the beginning feels isolated for having very strange sexual thoughts. She then discovers that her...

Superthinkers:Take a glimpse at what life is like with Pure O (2 min read)

by ebbehaviortherapycenter

Emily DiNuzzo reports accounts of individuals with OCD and Pure O. Samantha Jean describes “I remember one of my therapists said you might not always be afraid of germs but [OCD] will always be there and it’ll come back in different ways,” Jean says. “The obsessions...

Superthinkers: See how your OCD is tricking you (2 min read)

by ebbehaviortherapycenter

Veronica is a participant in Young Faces of Mental Illness, a collaboration with SANE and batyr supporting young adults to share their stories, here she shares 5 lies her OCD tells her. Your thoughts are dangerous: Your OCD may tell you that your thoughts are...

Superthinkers and superfeelers: Do you avoid your emotions? (1 min read)

by ebbehaviortherapycenter

This comic from the Awkward Yeti seems to capture so much about how superfeelers and superthinkers might interact with difficult feelings, and use technology and social media. Who can relate to going on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat as soon as something...

Superthinkers: Have you heard of these 7 types of obsessions?

by ebbehaviortherapycenter

Beyond the well-known manifestations of OCD that can include hand-washing, counting, and checking, OCD can manifest in a myriad of ways. As the author of this VICE Tonic article, and person with OCD writes, At its core, for me and others, OCD is a disorder of doubt. A...

Superthinkers: what it can mean when it’s related to the internet (1 min read)

by ebbehaviortherapycenter

In the rise of social media and the internet, it's also possible for this platform to the ground on which one's obsessions stake their claim. The internet can trigger fears and anxiety about how you are interacting with others online, or other aspects of your online...

Superthinkers: Read how perfectionism is rising in young adults ( 2 min read)

by ebbehaviortherapycenter

Research from Canada, the United States, and Britain shows that perfectionism is rising in young adults. Perfectionism is a personality trait or characteristic that is innate in many people. It is nurtured in some environments, notably in families where personal...

Superthinkers: Attend an online conference to beat OCD

by ebbehaviortherapycenter

Join this online 4-hour free conference to learn what OCD is, what it isn't, and how to fight it! There are topics to introduce OCD, explore ways to start fighting OCD through exposure or medication, and talks for parents of people with OCD and family members. There...