Dr Celin Gelgec

Dr Celin Gelgec Welcome to a world of Education for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

OCD math is less concerned with accuracy and more concerned with reaching one very specific conclusion: “We need to do s...
02/09/2026

OCD math is less concerned with accuracy and more concerned with reaching one very specific conclusion: “We need to do something about this”…

Check again.
Ask someone.
Review the memory.
Google the symptom.
Avoid the situation.
Run through the evidence one more time, but this time properly.

The problem is that compulsions quietly interfere with the data, which means that the “evidence” is not accurate. For example:

If nothing bad happens after checking, OCD credits the checking.
If nothing bad happens without checking, OCD calls it luck.
If anxiety decreases, the compulsion was apparently necessary.
If anxiety doesn’t decrease, we clearly haven’t done enough of it yet.

Now you have a beautifully balanced accounting system in which OCD can never record a loss. This is part of what makes response prevention in ERP (exposure and response prevention) so difficult. You’re not only resisting the urge to perform a compulsion. You’re allowing OCD’s calculations to remain unresolved.

ERP doesn’t give OCD a better equation. It asks whether you’re willing to stop doing the maths.

One of the most convincing things OCD does is convince you that this time, the usual rules don’t apply.Because this thou...
01/09/2026

One of the most convincing things OCD does is convince you that this time, the usual rules don’t apply.

Because this thought has evidence. This memory feels different. This sensation is stronger. This situation has an extra detail that changes everything.

And sometimes, there genuinely are differences. Of course there are. OCD doesn’t show up identically in every person, neatly following a textbook example.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean we need to solve those differences. Sometimes “yes, but…” is exactly where OCD finds its way back into the conversation.

And if I’ve learnt anything from years of treating OCD, it’s that OCD is exceptionally good at finding the footnote. The technicality. The one detail that makes you think: “Okay, but maybe this one really is different.”

It might be. And you can still choose not to figure it out. That’s kind of the point 🩷.

Knowing the logistics of ERP for OCD treatment is one thing, being able to apply it is a different skill. You can know h...
24/08/2026

Knowing the logistics of ERP for OCD treatment is one thing, being able to apply it is a different skill. You can know how to build a hierarchy. You can understand habituation, inhibitory learning, and response prevention. You can know that reassurance and avoidance maintain the cycle.

But then there’s a real person sitting in front of you. Their OCD doesn’t fit neatly into a textbook example. Their compulsions are subtle. They’re asking questions that might be reassurance seeking or might not be. They’re distressed. You’re wondering whether to push, slow down, change direction, or revisit the formulation entirely.

That’s where knowing ERP and being able to do ERP well become two different things. Good ERP isn’t about mechanically moving through a hierarchy. It’s being able to understand what OCD is doing in this person, in this moment — and knowing what needs to happen next.

Sometimes that’s an exposure. Sometimes it’s noticing a covert compulsion you’ve both missed. Sometimes it’s helping someone stay with uncertainty for another 30 seconds without doing the thing OCD is demanding.

And sometimes it’s recognising that you, as the therapist, are starting to get pulled into trying to make the anxiety go away too.

The model matters. But learning how to think, respond and make decisions inside the room is the skill.

That’s exactly what we work on in Foundations. Foundations is designed to help you bridge the gap between understanding OCD treatment and knowing how to actually apply it — from assessment and formulation through to building and delivering effective ERP.

Because knowing the model is the foundation. Knowing what to do when there’s a real person sitting across from you is the practice.

If you’re ready to feel more grounded in your OCD work, Foundations is available now. Head to the link in my bio to learn more. Follow the link in my bio to register.

When you’re a therapist who works with OCD, there’s an understanding that ERP is rarely as simple as it seems on paper. ...
19/08/2026

When you’re a therapist who works with OCD, there’s an understanding that ERP is rarely as simple as it seems on paper. We get taught that we need to…

Identify the fear.
Build the hierarchy.
Do the exposure.
Resist the compulsion.
Repeat.

And yet, anyone who has actually sat in the therapist chair when working with OCD knows that it rarely feels that clean. The difficult part often isn’t knowing what ERP is. It’s working out what’s actually happening in front of you.

Is this avoidance or a reasonable boundary? Is that question reassurance-seeking or does my client genuinely need information? Is the exposure targeting what’s driving the OCD or just what the symptom looks like? Am I helping my client stay with uncertainty or have I subtly started trying to make them feel better?

There isn’t always a neat rule that tells us what to do next. OCD treatment asks us to keep coming back to function, formulation and process, and to tolerate some uncertainty ourselves while we do it.

ERP might be simple to explain. Doing it well with an actual human being? That’s where the work is.

If you’ve often been wondering where to start, hit the link in my bio for **Foundations, ** my comprehensive training for clinicians who want to build confidence in working with OCD.

A reasonable question and a reassurance-seeking question when it comes to OCD treatment can sound exactly the same. That...
17/08/2026

A reasonable question and a reassurance-seeking question when it comes to OCD treatment can sound exactly the same. That’s what makes this tricky. The distinction isn’t necessarily in what your client is asking. It’s in what the answer is trying to achieve.

Is your client asking because they need information they genuinely don’t have? Or is OCD asking you to help settle something that already feels doubtful, uncomfortable or unresolved?

And sometimes, the harder question is this… Am I answering because my client needs the information, or am I answering because I can feel their discomfort and I want to make it go away?

Sometimes, reassurance in therapy sounds completely reasonable.

“Is this normal?”
“Do you think I did something wrong?”
“Would most people worry about this?”
“But realistically, how likely is it?”

The content of the question won’t always tell you what’s happening. We need to consider what’s happening underneath that. What happens after you answer? Does the information help the client move forward? Or does it buy certainty for a moment, before another question appears?

OCD treatment doesn’t mean refusing to answer every question. It means getting curious about what our answers are doing. Sometimes answering is good clinical care. And sometimes, without realising it, we’ve joined the compulsion.

07/08/2026

The Lindsay Clancy case is devastating. Three children lost their lives, a family has been changed forever, and a court is now considering incredibly complex questions about mental illness and criminal responsibility.

I’m not commenting on what happened in that home, and I’m certainly not diagnosing someone I’ve never assessed. But there are conversations surrounding this case that I think are important.

We need to understand the difference between postpartum OCD and postpartum psychosis. We need mothers experiencing frightening intrusive thoughts to know that having a thought is not the same as wanting it, intending it, or being instructed by it. And we need to make it safer for women to speak about what is happening in their minds without immediately fearing what others will think of them. But perhaps the question I keep coming back to most is much simpler:

Who is holding mum while everyone is holding the baby?

Maternal mental health cannot be an afterthought. And supporting mothers and supporting babies were never competing priorities.

06/08/2026

What is the single biggest thing that often gets skipped when it comes to assessing for OCD? Have a listen to find out.

Most professions don’t end meetings with the sentence:“I’ll take my turds with me.”But ERP isn’t most professions. Today...
04/08/2026

Most professions don’t end meetings with the sentence:

“I’ll take my turds with me.”

But ERP isn’t most professions. Today I was showing my colleague my latest acquisition for ERP during a meeting, and as the meeting wrapped up, I casually gathered them up and announced, “I’ll take my turds with me.”

Neither of us questioned how ridiculous that sentence sounded. It’s funny how quickly your version of “normal” changes when you spend your days helping people face the things OCD tells them they can’t.

One hour you’re discussing evidence-based treatment. The next you’re deciding which fake faeces looks the most realistic. And somehow, that’s just Tuesday.

ERP clinicians, what’s the weirdest sentence you’ve ever said at work that would sound completely unhinged to anyone outside our field?

One of the biggest misconceptions about treating OCD is that difficult cases are difficult because the therapist doesn’t...
02/08/2026

One of the biggest misconceptions about treating OCD is that difficult cases are difficult because the therapist doesn’t know enough.

In my experience, that’s rarely the whole story. More often, the challenge begins when doubt quietly enters the room. You start wondering whether the exposure is too much. Whether you should explain one more thing. Whether this client is different. Whether you should soften the task, answer the question, or make one small exception.

None of these decisions are inherently wrong. In fact, each one can sound thoughtful, compassionate and clinically reasonable in isolation. The difficulty is that OCD rarely pulls treatment off course in one obvious moment. More often, it happens through a series of small shifts that slowly move us away from the original formulation.

That’s why I think one of the most important skills in treating OCD isn’t just knowing what to do. It’s noticing the moment you stop trusting your own clinical judgement, and becoming curious about what’s creating that doubt. Because sometimes the thing that needs our attention isn’t the client. It’s what changed in the room. If you’re a mental health clinician wanting to book in for supervision, head to the link in my bio.

If OCD had a calendar, I think its schedule would be pretty full. If only cancelling those appointments were as easy as ...
31/07/2026

If OCD had a calendar, I think its schedule would be pretty full. If only cancelling those appointments were as easy as cancelling a coffee catch-up.

The reality is that OCD can make those invitations feel urgent, important, and impossible to ignore. That’s why recovery isn’t about having more willpower or simply deciding not to engage.

It’s about gradually learning the skills to recognise OCD’s invitations for what they are, learning tools to make room for the discomfort that follows, and practising not showing up every single time.

Not perfectly.
Not all at once.
Just one declined invitation at a time.

Which appointment did OCD try to book you into today?

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Camberwell, VIC
3124

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