Obsession & Compulsion Therapy in Kew

Obsessive-compulsive patterns are often misunderstood as being about cleanliness or order, when in practice they're usually about something far less visible: an intolerable thought or fear, and a ritual that offers brief, temporary relief from it. The compulsion isn't the real problem. It's a solution, an imperfect one, to an anxiety that hasn't yet been understood.

At KYND Psychology, therapy for obsessions and compulsions looks beyond simply interrupting the behaviour. It asks what the intrusive thought is actually about, and why the mind reaches for this particular ritual rather than another. Compulsions often carry a strange, private logic: a way of managing doubt, guilt, or a fear too unacceptable to sit with directly. Understanding that logic tends to loosen its grip more than resisting it through willpower alone.

Working from a psychoanalytic foundation, and drawing on evidence-based approaches where they serve the person in front of me, I offer a space to explore what these patterns are protecting against, without judgement and without shame. This isn't about simply stopping a behaviour. It's about understanding what it's been managing, always in service of the person, never the protocol.

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Why the Ritual Never Quite Settles the Doubt

Psychoanalytic thinking has long noted that obsessional doubt is rarely satisfied by the compulsion meant to resolve it. The checking, the counting, the repeating; each ritual brings only momentary relief before the doubt returns, often in a slightly different form. This is because the compulsion is usually addressing a substitute problem, a stand-in for something less permissible to think or feel directly. Finding what the ritual has been standing in for is often where lasting change begins.

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What Sessions Look Like

Early sessions focus on understanding the specific shape your obsessions and compulsions take, and what function they seem to serve. From there, therapy moves at a pace that respects how distressing this material can be, without forcing exposure faster than it can be tolerated.

Sessions are available for adults and young adults at our practice in Kew. Many clients travel from Hawthorn, Camberwell, Balwyn, and Richmond for a therapeutic approach that treats them as a whole person rather than a diagnosis. Clinical psychology offers structure and practical strategies, psychoanalytic thinking offers depth and meaning, and my training in both allows sessions to move between symptom-focused support and a slower exploration of what these patterns have been managing. Explore all therapy services