Paulina Stephens

I've had a hard month with harm ocd, specifically driving and my confidence has been shaken. So my ocd score jumped from a 9 to a 14. Was able to see Paulina today and she didn't make me feel bad for having a hard time and let me know that it's how ocd works. It can go up and down. I could tell she really cares about working with me and helping me. She brought back up a tool to use called "thought action fusion" which I feel will help tremendously. Then she gave me a new exposure to try. This is why I am blessed. Not all therapist would still try and put in the effort to help you after it's been years. But Paulina? She is always doing her best to provide me with the best tools and exposures to help me keep living MY life the way I WANT. Not how OCD wants.

I've been seeing Paulina for quite some time and I know that she will always continue to help me move forward in my life with OCD no matter how long it's been. It means a lot having a therapist who doesn't stop trying as much just because you are further along in your recovery.

Paulina has been a fantastic resource and has improved my life immeasurably!

I appreciate Paulina’s kindness, empathy, and skill as a therapist!

Paulina is so supportive and open to all suggestions and questions I might have. She makes sure I know that I am in charge of my therapy. I love the support I have outside of my sessions between my therapist through messaging and my member advocate team. The most support I’ve felt from a therapy company! Thank you NOCD

Paulina is amazing. I wish our sessions could be longer but I've been seeing Paulina for a little over a year and I feel so safe and understood with her. I truly believe she can help me get stronger.

Couldn’t have asked for a more personal session. Paulina is great and left me feeling assured that I was in the right place. Looking forward to future treatment sessions.

My therapist is awesome! I am so fortunate to have found NOCD. It has been a long, difficult road to get to where I am now. I honestly never thought I could get here. I never thought this place I am in now was possible. I am not perfectly recovered. That’s not possible. I am however, able to do many things that I was not able to before. And for a long before. I have my moments at times still. But now I get back to using my skills a lot quicker. It’s not perfect recovery. It never will be. But it is possible to live a life that is yours & to do it with some joy, fun, laughter & do it while there is a bit of fear at times too.

My appointment was shorter than it should have been. She was almost 5 minutes late on zoom and then her computer had to reset so then it took me off. I really needed my appointment to be my whole 30 minutes today but it was only around 20 minutes. I really like Paulina but todays was a bit short on my appointment unfortunately.

I really hit the jackpot with therapists! Paulina is great! With a wealth of knowledge about ocd. I’m so happy I found NOCD & got a diagnosis of having ocd. After all these years, I’m doing so much better than I ever imagined was possible for me.

Very thorough and compassionate. She made us feel very comfortable and open.

My therapist is the best! She has been so great the whole way through this journey with me. I’ve learned so much about ocd in general & on how my own specific ocd shows itself. Paulina saw me through a very scary time with my health the last few months. I’m happy to say I am doing great. I got some very scary news, had surgery & am about ready to return to work from that. I handled the whole health situation better than I ever thought possible. I owe it all to finally getting an ocd diagnosis & then being able to do therapy for the ocd specifically, issuing exposure, response prevention. It’s possible to do better with your ocd to the point that you are in recovery & maintaining them. When I started ocd therapy here last year in January 2022 I never though this place I am in now was even possible. It is & I’m here! You can do it too. Keep up doing the hard things in therapy & with ERP. You’ve got this!

Paulina is a God send. She has taught and encouraged me about how to live with OCD. Wonderful!!

Love Paulina. Always gets me back on track when I’ve gone astray.

My therapist has been great! She has helped me learn so much about ocd in general & also about my own ocd. I have had a lot of ups & downs since I started seeing her & she has always been very supportive & encouraging, as well as being with me where I am at the moment with some health related things that have come up as I have been doing the ocd therapy. I couldn’t ask for better.

She is awesome!!

My therapist is great! She has helped me learn so much about ocd & how my specific ocd & compulsions play out in me. I have come so far in the last year & a half in ocd therapy here at NOCD. A few weeks ago I was dealt a big dish of uncertainty in the way of, “you have a growth on your kidney that could very possibly be cancer.” No certainty to be found in that no matter how hard one’s ocd may want to try. In this type of situation all there really is to do is use my skills. It’s the only thing that will help me not to spin completely out of control & go down the rabbit hole of what my ocd is trying to get me to believe. I am so thankful to NOCD & to my therapist Paulina. If I had not started this journey on getting treatment for my OCD when I did, then I would not be handling this health issue the way that I am. Don’t get me wrong. I’m still scared, because it’s scary. I have my moments of sadness, moments when the fear is stronger than others. But I’m using my skills. The skills I have learned here. Am I doing them perfectly every day? No, it’s not perfect. But i’m doing it. I’m using my skills one step at a time. One day at a time. Sometimes one moment at a time. And it doesn’t have to be perfect to be helping. If I can do this during a time of complete uncertainty. You can too! Don’t give up! Never give up! Always keep trying. You are taking in more about ocd & how to recover from it than you realize, more than you give yourself credit for. I have been right there with you. Now, for me, when push has come to shove, I have the knowledge & skills to use with helping me through this very difficult time. I have chosen to use the skills I’ve learned no matter what the outcome is with my health. Of course I would love a very positive, great outcome with my health, but whatever comes my way through this, I am going to keep using my skills. Because the skills work, in me deciding to live my life for me & to live it to fullest that I want to. Health issue or not, I am going to live my life, using my skills. As much or as little as I need to. I will not let ocd take any more time & living of life from me.

I’ve had a lot of ups & downs lately. My therapist has been great working with me & encouraging me through all of it. I am making more & more progress. Tweaking skills here & there as needed.

Paulina has opened the door to freedom from the spirals of OCD

Very nice and informative. Made the process easy!

Paulina has been a God send in helping me confront OCD for what it is. I am so thankful!

I really feel like Paulina gets what my specific ocd is about & how to help me with it. Sometimes it feels like I am stumbling all around while trying to express myself about it. But she understands it & is able to see into the core parts that need to be worked on. Today was a really good session. I was able to be more fully present & not in my head. I felt good today & I felt good about my session. I felt better in myself during session than I have in a while.

I’m getting there. I can do this. I‘ve got it. Paulina is a great therapist. I would recommend her to anyone who is struggling with OCD. I am ready to get back to it, work the erp exercises & take my life back. It’s hard to let go of what you know. It’s harder to allow yourself to sit with distress & take no action to make yourself feel better & be calmer. It’s Hardest, though, to keep living the way that I always have. That way I have been living, the way that I have always lived for all of my life is with OCD calling all of the shots & causing so much inner turmoil within me. I can do this. We all can do this. Keep trying. Keep getting back up each & every time. Never give up. We can all do this. It is worth it. We are worth it.

My sessions have gone great and are really helping me.

Paulina is great. Her knowledge of OCD is so vast. You can see that she truly wants to help people get to recovery with their ocd. Paulina has given me the tools i need to get to recovery. I am currently in the midst of the hardest exposure I have take on yet. Right now it doesn’t feel very good. I don’t feel very good. With the tools I have I know I can do this. And if I can do this, my hardest exposure to date, then I can do anything.

Session was fine. Change is just hard. And even though I have been on this journey for almost a year now, I still find change to be hard & it scares me at first, for a bit, until I get more used to it. I’m still going to be putting one foot in front of the other & keep going. Even if I am a little scared in the meantime. I’m going to hear what my ocd is telling me & do my best to not respond, not talk back to it, not allow it to control me. I’m going to just keep going on. Doing the things that are important to me. Loving my life for me. I’ve got this even when i struggle to think I have. Change is just hard. It probably always will be. I can still do it though, even if & when it feels hard. I’m not sure why this decrease In session time is being so hard & the last wasn’t as difficult. If I wasn’t ready it wouldn’t be happening. My ocd wants me to question my readiness & my ability to handle it though. It wants me to believe that I can’t do it & that I won’t do good with this change. So I’m going to hear what my ocd is saying, & then I’m going to keep on going. Becuase that is how I get there.

Paulina has helped me learn so much about OCD in general & about my own OCD & how that plays out in my everyday life with the things that tend to trigger my compulsions. Now that I have a pretty good grasp of the basics of ocd & some skills to help, Paulina has been attempting to help me with gaining some confidence in trusting myself with this & that I can do this. No matter what the theme, or thought, feelings that may come up. I am growing in all of this & making strides forwards.

She helps me feel more balanced

Paulina is great! I would highly Recommend her to others struggling with ocd. She has been so patient with me & understanding, while also bringing me back to focusing on my exercises when needed. I am not very trusting & it takes me time, sometimes quite a bit of time, to feel comfortable enough with someone to open up completely. This week I was able to share something that I had not previously acknowledged was a part of my compulsions & now I have a plan to begin to work on it more.

Paulina was great at helping me refocus today. With a gentle reminder to go easier on myself & remember how important it is the way that I talk to myself & the way that I look at myself. That is hard to do at times but I will keep working on it. I am so thankful to NOCD for this resource dedicated to ocd therapy & recovery. I am also thankful for Paulina’s wealth of knowledge about ocd & being supportive, encouraging & understanding, while also keeping me looking forward, recognizing my progress & seeing that I am getting there. Even on the rougher days that come along on the journey.

Might be finishing up with treatment now. So grateful for Paulina Stephens!

I feel that Paulina hears me and understands hopes to Make me feel better and genuinely is happy for my improvement!

I can do this! I can do this!

Paulina is great! I was more tearful during session today & having a little more trouble with wanting to get into what was going on in my mind with my thoughts. She is always very kind when this happens with me, pointing out the progress i have made. That helps me not to stay stuck in the way I am feeling. For me it is not only the thoughts with my ocd but also the emotions/feelings that I am feeling that my ocd likes to exploit too, & make me think that I have to figure them out as well. Progress, not perfection.

During my time with Paulina I have learned so much about OCD, both in general & how my ocd is specifically with me, & how to best work with it as such. She knows what she’s talking about with ocd. I am so glad that I found NOCD & decided to give it a shot. For 11 years I have done talk therapy & it never helped me in the long run. Thanks to NOCD & Paulina I am doing better. Not perfect, not healed, but better, & with hope to keep growing & learning more & more how to keep handling my ocd instead of letting it rule me & my life. If you are just starting out with erp, keep doing it. Keep coming back. It takes time & for some of us it take more time than others. It took me lots of time. You will get it & it will begin to make sense to you. One day it will start clicking & when it does, look out. You will make progress & you just keep going from there. Take it from me. I was slow to start with erp & in the beginning I thought I was never going to get it. But I did & now I’m doing even better than I thought I was possible. There are still more difficult days for me but now I know how to turn those around. Good luck all!

I am getting lots of positive help and I’m seeing lots of benefits!

I am so happy that I stuck it out in therapy. I am seeing more & more progress each week as I keep acknowledging that I see my ocd & what it is trying to do & then I do not follow along behind it. Sometimes it gets me still but I am getting stronger in sitting with how what it is saying makes me feel.

After just a couple of so see that this is helping tremendously

I really like my therapist. I believe that she has my best interest in mind when it comes to suggestions of exercises to try. Even when I’m not so sure that I want to do something right away. She listens & is encouraging but not overly reassuring-as one of my compulsions is reassurance seeking. She helps me to see my progress when I am having trouble seeing past the current, immediate discomfort I am feeling. I am thankful to have found NOCD when I got my OCD diagnosis this year after a decade of other therapists missing it.

My therapist has been great at helping bring me back to the task at hand, my ocd work, while my depression was so bad over the last month. I have learned a lot about my OCD & how to not engage with it. It’s a work in progress. I certainly don’t do it all perfectly. No one would. But i get back up & I keep trying each time.

I plan on doing my see check ins with Paulina Stephens for as long as possible. She’s helped me so much.

Paulina is insightful and shows compassion and care with my daughter. She is moving at a comfortable pace for my daughter.

I was inspired to paint after therapy today. Something my theorist was telling me about a bird & a branch. I found it very inspiring & wanted to give myself a visual reminder. Seriously, my therapist has been awesome at continuing to help me with my ocd, & bringing me back to that work, while I have been struggling more with my depression & have had trouble staying focused on the task at hand. My ocd work.

I am making real progress! I have really started to put in the effort now to utilize my skills & do the erp exercises. The progress is really starting to show & I am seeing the difference between my ocd being in charge & when I am in charge of my ocd. It is a vast difference. A big thank you to my therapist for sticking in there with me until I got to this point of really working on my ocd.

My therapist has been very supportive & encouraging while I have had some medication changes & other things happening lately. Finally I am feeling better now & I am ready & committed to doing the work to get me where I want to be with my ocd.

My therapist Paulina has really helped me build awareness around my condition. I’ve learned skills to help me reduce my trich and anxiety.

I am learning a lot about my ocd & I am really starting to get somewhere with it.

I have silently suffered with OCD my whole life, I was diagnosed at 7 years old and am now 35. I'm so glad I found this app as it's changed my life. Paulina is my therapist and has been phenomenal, never making me feel abnormal or crazy and guiding my way through the sessions. My OCD is never going away but I now know the tools to combat it and keep it at bay and live a fulfilling life. I owe that to NOCD.

My therapist is very good at helping me to see the ocd more clearly for what it is. Just thoughts, that I do not have to engage or take deeper meaning from. They are just thoughts. I am seeing better how the ocd changes it up a lot in order to keep getting to me so I will do the compulsions. Paulina is helping me see that. It’s hard doing the erp & it’s hard obsessing & doing the compulsions. Little steps of progress are still steps of progress all the same.

My mind wanted to focus on the negative during session. Paulina is very good at keeping the focus on not perfection & in normalizing having times where the ocd is worse & that that is not a failure. I really like how she puts it as the ocd is throwing a tantrum to get me to do a compulsion. Like a two year old throwing a tantrum. I remember two years old tantrums from raising my kids & they are not logical or predictable. The tantrum just wants it’s way & will pull out all the stops in order to get it. I can see the ocd as being like that since I have started working on sitting with the thoughts, feelings & emotions that come up with it.

Therapy was really good today. I was able to get back on track & back into doing the erp exercises again. My therapist does pretty well at keeping me focused & to the task at hand. She is positive, supportive, encouraging & helps me see when & how to go about taking those next steps when I ready.

My therapist was wonderful in talking to me where I was & encouraging me to do what I needed to in order to get myself the help I needed while I was having a medication issue on the day I saw her. I like that Paulina is observant & willing to help me where I am when I was struggling with more than just my OCD.

I was better able to understand the ocd. What it looks like in me. How it shows. This is the first appt where I really felt like I was getting it. I asked a question & we talked about that so I understood better.

My therapist took the time to talk with me about the loss of my long time pet that happened the morning of my appt. Rather than just getting straight into the ERP, she took the time to meet me where I was at that moment in sadness over that loss. That meant a lot as I was trying so hard to avoid my feelings over it up to that point & the tears coming out the. helped.

I left today’s appt feeling more encouraged. I have really been struggling with my diagnosis of ocd & my thoughts have been running rampant ever since. Starting therapy has given me hope, but also been pretty frustrating as my ocd thoughts tell me that I need to know every little thing right now & that if I don’t then it is a failure. Today my therapist helped me to look at that in a different, more positive structured way rather than the really negative one I had been seeing it in as a failure. So I am back to being more hopeful again. That it is possible for me to get there & be able to better navigate through my ocd as it comes up.

Paulina is always so helpful and really cares how I’m doing. She gets excited to see when my scores are improving. She’s helped me a lot.

I’m surprised that I am as calm as I am right now after a therapy session. That is usually something that causes my thoughts to run rampant in a full blown ocd episode. My first obsession, triggers & compulsions have been identified in the hierarchy & I think that my therapist explained everything well for how to go about my first exposure to start working on.

I feel like this might really be the missing piece of the puzzle that has been going on, unrecognized as OCD, for years. Having hope for change is difficult for me as I have been the way I am for so long, without knowing what it was, that getting better is like a dream that you don’t know if it is true or not. Could I actually get better now? Is this the missing piece of the puzzle? Once my OCD is treated will that help me more with my depression too? Will I finally be able to move past the trauma & be able to stay there then? So many questions. But there is some hope also.

Paulina does an excellent job talking to my daughter and gives her space to be the child that she is. I have seen massive improvements in our work together.

I was a little nervous for my first appointment. A new therapist again. It is always hard for me to feel like I can really open up & trust someone in the beginning. It takes me time. I think I did okay though. I just want to get to where I feel better in my own mind. Being who I am without all the fear & anxiety running things. To stay present with people & in situations is my goal that I want to get to.

Paulina has helped me so much already.