“I had seen multiple therapists spanning over a decade however I still had this reoccurring crippling anxiety that was getting worse and significantly restricting me from living my life – I was finally diagnosed with having OCD and I sought out the best treatment for this that I could find.

I found Costas Papageorgiou and read that he specialised in the treatment of OCD, and he had a track record for helping people who had previously had therapy that had been unsuccessful – This was what I needed however I was sceptical as I felt I was going to be starting over where I had been before.

I remember the moment I received the call from Sue, Costas’ secretary, to get me booked on the course – She gave me the info of the course and how it would work and I was immediately disappointed when she told me it was a group course! I really didn’t want to have to do therapy in a group however, as it turns out, it was the best thing that has ever happened to me!

Following an initial assessment 1-1 session with Costas, there were 12 sessions and each session was 2 hours long and was conducted on Zoom from the comfort of your own home. I was nervous and excited at the same time and after the first session, Costas asked us to make some notes on our reflections from the first session – I was shocked to have the realisation that this was the first time I had ever spoken with other people that were suffering in the same way I was

It was then I realised I was in the right place!

What would I say to someone contemplating this course?

If you’ve been diagnosed with OCD, I would urge you to try this course. I immediately felt I was in a safe place and gained a sense of support from the group as well as Costas and Karen, that I hadn’t expected to feel. I can honestly say it is the best move I have ever made in my life.

Since the course, I have regained my life fully and I am doing all the things I wanted to that I was previously completely avoiding. My family have seen this, and the benefit has therefore been felt by them too. I recently asked my wife what she felt about me having done this course and her response was that it has changed our life forever – We were able to get married, plan having children and go on holidays – All things that were either on hold or significantly impacted by my OCD.

My advice for anyone taking this course is to make the most if it by making plenty of notes and using the time after each session to write down your reflections. Putting pen to paper really helped me remember what I had learnt and gave me a little book of notes for me to look back on if I ever needed a reminder.

Good times are ahead 😊”

Joe

"At the age of 65, I had OCD almost all my life since about the age of 14. I’d always managed to live with it other than on 3 occasions over that period when it became unmanageable and caused me to stop functioning completely. The last of these was in 2020 just before the start of lockdown (although I have to say I don’t think this flare up was anything to do with COVID).

With the two previous major episodes, I had stubbornly refused to get any professional help and it was only with a prolonged period of mental anguish and depression that I managed to find my way through it myself.

On this last occasion, this did not work and I spiralled downhill faster and faster until I could hardly get of the bedroom in a morning and was consumed by OCD totally and very depressed. For the sake of my wife and myself, I knew I had to seek some professional help and got a referral from my GP to privately see a psychiatrist at the Priory. He confirmed not only that I had severe OCD but also that I was very clinically depressed.

After about 2 months of seeing him and being on medication, he felt it was time I saw an OCD specialist and highly recommended one who he rated as the best in the country and who ran a regular 12 week program. This was the first time I met Dr Costas Papageorgiou, a Clinical Psychologist, who after an initial consultation said my OCD, on a scale of 1 being mild to 12 being very severe, was a 12.

He explained that his program was a 12 week group therapy session using a modified CBT strategy which had always previously been held face to face but due to COVID was now online. Initially I felt I needed intense one to one treatment and was unsure of the idea of sharing my obsessions and compulsions with other people.

However, very quickly on the first session, I felt very comfortable with the others on the course who were suffering in the same way I was. I was sold on the idea of this group therapy. I wasn’t alone.

As the sessions progressed, it became clear the strategy wasn’t to look at why you had OCD and get at the root cause. It was obvious that from the 12 of us we all had similar compulsions but caused from different obsessions. Instead the plan was to give you the tools to stop the OCD by getting control of your compulsive thoughts.

The whole idea was based on an amazing strategy of how you stopped yourself crossing an imaginary line when you got an OCD thought (which everyone does but they don’t descend into the pit of OCD) and if you did cross it how then best to deal with it. The basic strategy in a nutshell was to leave it alone. Sounds simple, but anyone with OCD will know just how hard this is to do and how much mental anguish and pain there is. Its one I had discovered myself on the previous major flare ups without really knowing what or why I was doing it and why it worked, hence the subsequent relapses. This time however the program got me to understand how and why this worked and gave me several new tools to deal with it.

This worked, not only for me, but also for other people in my group. I did continue with some 1 to 1 sessions with Costas after the 12 weeks just to reinforce the concepts we’d learned and to make sure I was applying them in the correct way.

Costas is undoubtedly an amazing therapist and his course and his team have probably saved my marriage if not my life.

I am still not sure if I could ever say I am totally OCD free but I am as close to it as I have ever been over 50 years. The things I learned from both Costas and the other group members have helped me to lead a normal life again. I am also no longer clinically depressed.

In short, this group therapy program was an amazing success for me run by a brilliant, understanding and lovely man and his team and I would recommend this program to anyone with OCD.”

Steve