"What I found helpful was looking back and acknowledging how far you’ve come and how much you’ve changed. Not only in terms of rituals but also the gained confidence and new characteristics. This motivated me to keep going as I realised that my quality of life had improved so much already because of therapy and I wanted it to continue improving. What I didn’t find so helpful was the lack of contact between therapists and schools. Both my therapist and school were great but I think that it would’ve been useful for my school to have had more knowledge on my therapy and how it was impacting me." - OCDUKYA

“My helpful suggestion for therapists would be to try to maintain contact with their patients daily so that they feel supported and can stay motivated. I started having some one-to-one therapy in January, which I have since stopped, but many of my appointments were cancelled and my therapist rarely contacted me outside of sessions, even if I had sent them a message. I felt like they did not really care how I was doing therefore I lacked motivation to achieve my targets.” - OCDUKYA

"Make sure you find a therapist who you trust and like and do not settle for just anyone. I was told I didn’t have OCD as I didn’t wash my hands that much, by the assessor. Make sure you have someone with you who has the strength and knowledge to challenge their incompetence." - OCDUKYA

"It is helpful when the therapist/whoever making it clear there is absolutely no judgement from them and reminding you their job is to help you - you’re not a burden on them. Something not so helpful is when assuming things about a person’s OCD. Nobody has the exact same OCD and understanding it manifests itself in many different ways." - OCDUKYA

"One positive I have from therapy is when they validate and recognise how scared/exhausted you are. It is hard when they misunderstand your anxiety as a desire." - OCDUKYA

"You often only have a certain number of sessions to complete your therapy in and this strict timeline does not allow for changes to the schedule of your therapy. So I often find that after a few sessions of therapy, when I am more comfortable and have got to know the therapist better, there is no time for me to talk about something that has played a major part in my OCD worsening or a traumatic incident for example. This leads to my therapy basically being wasted and ineffective because there wasn’t enough time to get to the root of my issues." - OCDUKYA