Gary Vandalfsen

It took a while to get here. Originally, I didn't really know exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I realized money and status weren't really appealing to me. What did appeal to me was something that felt meaningful—the idea of helping people make it through really challenging times in their lives, when they most need help. I went for it, and it's been an amazing fit. I've never looked back.

It's an underserved population, and ERP is such an effective treatment. I had my first experience working with somebody with OCD when I started working as a therapist in private practice in 1993. I sought out a mentor who guided me through my first experience doing ERP. The change in this woman's life—I could still tell you about most of the ERP sessions we had, it was that vivid and that impactful. About a decade ago, I was thinking about changes I'd like to make. I realized I really wanted to get back to that thing that was so invigorating at the beginning of my career. I spent a week at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for the Treatment Study of Anxiety, focusing exclusively on state-of-the-art training for OCD. I came out of there inspired and decided I was going to radically change the nature of my practice, to focus on people with OCD. Since coming to NOCD, I've been given lots of great education and training on BFRBs (body-focused repetitive behaviors), tics and hoarding. And now I really enjoy working with those as well.

I have a lot of experience working with people with anxiety disorders of various types—social phobia, generalized anxiety, panic disorder, and other phobias. I grew up a really anxious kid. But I didn't have anybody to talk to or any way to talk about that. I did a lot of suffering in silence, with a lot of avoidance and compulsive behaviors. That gives me a lot of empathy and compassion for people who are going through the same thing. It's very fulfilling to help people get through circumstances when they really need help.

I realize I'm asking you to do something really scary, and really hard. I will give you the experience of having somebody alongside you every step of the way. I also want to challenge you, because I know that the natural thing is to pull back from the things that seem scary, but that is so limiting to your life. I hope you find me to be a combination of compassionate, direct and challenging—with encouragement all along the way.

You can tell me that. This happens often - people say, 'There are some things I just don't feel comfortable talking about.' I do a pretty good job of helping people provide some words on those uncomfortable things. I talk about what other people have really struggled with, then how freeing it was once they were able to say it out loud. For a lot of people, putting it out there is half the battle. Then you lose the shame, the fear. You almost visibly see the relief that starts to happen when people get out of that prison of shame. You can stand up to this. These are just thoughts. But that's not going to happen until you're willing to face those fears.