Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is more than a preference for neatness or a tendency to double-check. It’s a cycle of intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and urges to perform specific behaviors or mental rituals (compulsions) to relieve anxiety. Left untreated, OCD can take up hours of the day, create intense emotional distress, and interfere with relationships, work, and daily life.
Mark Sasvary, Ph.D., LCSW, provides targeted, evidence-based treatment for OCD using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with a focus on Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), the gold standard of care. Sessions are structured, collaborative, and designed to help you make meaningful progress. Dr. Sasvary offers in-person therapy in Rhinebeck, NY which is easily accessible from Kingston and Poughkeepsie and other towns in the Hudson Valley. Dr. Sasvary also provides services online therapy throughout Connecticut, Florida, and Pennsylvania.
Understanding the OCD Cycle
OCD doesn’t respond well to logic or reassurance. In fact, trying to “reason through” obsessive thoughts often makes them worse. Obsessions might involve fears of contamination, harming others, religious or moral concerns, and intrusive thoughts that feel disturbing or out of character. The compulsions that follow, whether washing, checking, counting, repeating phrases, or avoiding certain triggers, temporarily reduce distress, but reinforce the OCD cycle over time.
OCD can be exhausting, confusing, and isolating. But it is also highly treatable with the right approach.
How Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) Helps
ERP works by helping you gradually face the situations, thoughts, or images that trigger distress, without performing the usual compulsions. Over time, this teaches your brain that you can tolerate distress and that feared outcomes are less likely or not as catastrophic as they seem.
Dr. Sasvary guides each client through this process with care, pacing exposures so that you build confidence and mastery at each step. Treatment is goal-oriented and typically short-term, with clear strategies and support to help you move through distress and toward long-term freedom.
A Clear, Practical Approach
Therapy with Dr. Sasvary focuses on doing, not just talking. In Rhinebeck, NY, or through online sessions, you'll learn how OCD operates, gain tools to interrupt the cycle, and begin challenging the patterns that reinforce OCD. Sessions include structured planning, coping skill-building, and weekly assignments tailored to your specific symptoms and goals.
Common areas treated include:
- Contamination fears
- Checking and reassurance-seeking
- Intrusive harm or sexual thoughts
- Religious or moral scrupulosity
- Symmetry, counting, ordering, or perfectionist compulsions
- Avoidance of people, places, or responsibilities due to OCD
Therapy That Respects Your Effort and Intelligence
Living with OCD is not a reflection of weakness. It reflects a brain that's over productive and overprotective, not broken. Dr. Sasvary works with adults and teens who are motivated to change but need the right tools to interrupt the OCD cycle. His style is focused, respectful, creative and collaborative, offering both coaching and encouragement.
OCD Related Disorders
I also have extensive experience treating OCD related disorders such as body dysmorphic disorder, picking, and hair pulling (trichotillomania).
Start OCD Treatment in New York’s Hudson Valley and Online in Connecticut, Florida, or Pennsylvania
Whether you’re looking for in-person OCD therapy in Rhinebeck or you live in Connecticut, Florida, or Pennsylvania and prefer the flexibility of virtual care, Mark Sasvary, Ph.D., LCSW, offers specialized treatment that works.
Reach out today to schedule a consultation and learn how short-term, targeted therapy can help you take back control of your life and do all the things you want to do and need to do. Call (845) 475-6406.