Catholic-Informed Counseling in Colorado

OCD tends to latch onto whatever matters most to a person. For a Catholic, that can include questions about sin, confession, prayer, morality, blasphemy, or whether you have done something wrong.

This is often called scrupulosity.

Scrupulosity can be particularly difficult because the behavior can look religious. You may go to confession repeatedly, ask someone whether something was sinful, replay a conversation to determine whether you acted wrongly, research moral questions online, or pray until something feels “just right.”

The underlying problem, however, may be less about the religious question itself and more about OCD's demand for certainty.

You may know intellectually that nobody can be completely certain about every thought, intention, or decision. But OCD keeps asking you to check one more time.

That cycle can be exhausting.

My primary treatment for OCD is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP).

ERP isn't about arguing with every intrusive thought or proving that your fears aren't true. It involves learning to tolerate uncertainty and resist the behaviors that OCD uses to make you feel certain or safe.

For someone with scrupulosity, that can take a very particular form.

You might work on resisting the urge to confess something again because you're afraid you didn't confess it correctly. You might practice allowing uncertainty about whether an intrusive thought says something about your character. You might stop looking for reassurance about whether a particular action was sinful.

The point isn't to become careless about morality or stop taking your faith seriously.

It's to learn to recognize when OCD has entered the picture.

That distinction matters. A person can care deeply about living according to Catholic teaching while also recognizing that compulsively checking, confessing, researching, or seeking reassurance isn't helping them do that.

 Not every Catholic client wants a religious component in therapy. Some people simply want a therapist who understands where they're coming from.

Others may want to talk about how their faith affects their anxiety, relationships, decisions, or understanding of suffering.

If we decide that incorporating your faith would be useful, we might talk about things like conscience, moral responsibility, forgiveness, vocation, or the tension between wanting to live faithfully and wanting absolute certainty that you've done everything correctly.

Sometimes the most helpful thing is recognizing that a psychological problem is a psychological problem.

An intrusive thought doesn't necessarily require a theological answer. Anxiety doesn't always mean that something is spiritually wrong. And uncertainty isn't necessarily evidence that you've made a bad decision.

Learning to tolerate those experiences can be an important part of treatment.

 Northart Counseling provides telehealth counseling throughout Colorado, with a particular focus on OCD, anxiety, and related concerns.

If you're searching for a Catholic therapist in Colorado, particularly someone who understands OCD and scrupulosity, I offer a place where those parts of your life don't have to be kept separate.

You don't have to choose between taking your mental health seriously and taking your faith seriously.

If you're interested in Catholic-informed counseling, I'd be happy to talk with you about what you're looking for and whether Northart Counseling would be a good fit.