This is an eye-opening book about one of the most common psychiatric ailments diagnosed today, 'obsessive compulsive disorder' (OCD). Written by Leslie J. Shapiro, LICSW, a renowned therapist at one of the most well-known OCD facilities in the world, this text shares effective treatment strategies and clinical factors for helping therapists, mental health professionals, psychology students, clergy, and others deal with individuals coping with this disorder. The author offers case examples from her 15 years of residential work with patients, demonstrating how sufferers, even the most treatment resistant, can get control of the condition.

Organized into three sections, this guidebook first explains how OCD and guilt are intertwined and explores survival instincts, cultural factors, and the nature of thoughts. The second section covers aspects of the moralosity, and obsessive guilt. The book’s conclusion describes effective exposure and response prevention strategies for these symptoms and examines methods of treatment that augment and help maintain recovery. An in-depth discussion on the differences between compulsive and impulsive behaviors, as well as other treatment impediments is included.

Educational Objectives

Upon completion of this course, the clinician will be able to:

• Explain the reasons why OCD is viewed as a neurobiological disorder
• List the factors illustrating the universality of OCD
• Demonstrate how to expose and work through underlying negative emotions that can interfere with treatment
• Communicate assessment strategies to diagnose differing types of OCD
• Provide examples of similar thoughts and behaviors that are not OCD
• Explain how religious/moral countertransference may also be an interfering factor in treatment outcome

Syllabus / Course Instructions

• This course is suitable for CE for beginning, intermediate and advanced level clinicians.
• The Course consists of reading the selected book, successfully completing an online posttest and filling out a course evaluation.
• The printed book or ebook or kindle book is not included. It must be purchased separately. We have supplied a link to Amazon.com for your convenience.
• Purchasing your course will give you access to both a printable copy of the test and an online version of the test. Once the course is purchased, the title of the book will appear in your Members Area. When the cursor is placed on the book title a drop down menu will appear whereby you can print the test to use as a companion as you read the book and answer the questions.
• You cannot exit the online test once you begin, so have your answers available.

Additional Resources On This Site for CE

• The Gift of Therapy
  by Irvin Yalom: 10 CE Credits
• Getting Over OCD: A 10-Step Workbook for Taking Back Your Life
  Jonathan S. Abramowitz, PhD: 12 CE Credits
• The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide: What You and Your Family Need to Know (2nd Edition)
  David J. Miklowitz, Ph.D.: 15 CE Credits
• Working With Narrative in Emotion-Focused Therapy: Changing Stories, Healing Lives
  by Lynne E. Angus, PhD, CPsych and Leslie S. Greenberg, PhD: 7 CE Credits
• Flourish: A New Understanding of Well-being
  by Martin E.P. Seligman: 13 CE Credits
• Emotion-Focused Therapy
  by Leslie S. Greenberg, PhD: 6 CE Credits
• ACT Made Simple: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
  by Russ Harris, MD: 11 CE Credits
• The Mindfulness Workbook for Addiction: A Guide to Coping with the Grief, Stress, and Anger that Trigger Addictive Behaviors
  by Rebecca Williams, PhD and Julie Kraft MA, LMFT: 7 CE Credits
• On Becoming a Better Therapist: Evidence-Based Practice One Client at a Time (2nd Edition)
  by Barry L. Duncan: 10 CE Credits

Additional Resources Not On This Site

• American Psychological Association
• Association of Social Work Boards
• National Association of Certified Counselors
• National Association of Addiction Professionals

Bio: Leslie J. Shapiro, LICSW

Leslie J. Shapiro, LICSW, is a behavior therapist who has been treating OCD and related disorders since 1989. She continues to provide treatment for patients at the OCD Institute, where she has worked since its inception in 1997. Early in her career, Shapiro developed expertise in addressing the conscience-related aspects that underlie almost all types of OCD symptoms. She was awarded the first Interdisciplinary Career Development Research Grant at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, to support her project "A Psychoeducational Group to Address Pathological Guilt in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder." She also received support from the David Judah Fund of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for her research on OCD, scrupulosity, and pathological guilt.

Along with having made dozens of clinical and research presentations on scrupulosity and obsessive guilt, she has several professional publications, including L.J. Shapiro , J.W. Krominger, C.M. Gironda, & J. A. Elias, Development of Scrupulosity Severity Scale Using the Pennsylvania Inventory of Scrupulosity Revised, Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 2 (2013): 420-424, and L.J. Shapiro & S.E. Stewart, "Pathological Guild: A Persistent Yet Overlooked Treatment Factor In Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder," Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, 23 (2011):62-70. She is a committee member of the Partners for Research Advancement in Nursing and Social Work. Her other roles involve teaching, supervising, and training students and staff at the OCD Institute. She was invited to be an expert content editor for a continuing education course titled "Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment." She is a graduate of the Boston University School of Social Work, where she has also been an adjunct professor, and has been a lecturer at Harvard Medical School.