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Foreign.
B
And welcome to another episode of the get to Know OCD podcast. Although today's a little bit different than our usual podcast. Instead of interviewing people today with OCD or who treat OCD because, well, the people who are coming on do treat ocd, but we're going to take a little different bent on it today and we're going to talk about the training that happens here at nocd. Many people will come to join NOCD because they're interested in learning evidence based practices like exposure and response prevention therapy, which is what we use for obsessive compulsive disorder, but they don't maybe have a background in it, or they've done what they call some exposure therapy, which usually involves exposing people to things, but didn't use any response prevention or something of that nature. And so I brought in today Dr. Mia Nunez, who, who is helping us with our interviewing process here at nocd, and Taylor Neuendorp, who, once people get through the interviewing process, will get handed over to Taylor and his team to do the training and the onboarding for folks here at nocd. So first of all, hi Mia. Hi, Taylor. Welcome. Happy to have you guys here today.
C
Happy to be here.
A
Yeah, thanks for having us, Patrick.
B
All right, so Taylor, you and I go back a very long way because we worked together even at a previous hospital. And Taylor joined the anxiety disorder program that I had there and got his initial training in OCD and anxiety disorders through that. And so Taylor, you've been involved in the receiving training all the way to now running training for quite a while in your career.
A
Yeah, and I feel really fortunate to be in that hospital program where the entire focus was on implementing ERP for OCD and anxiety disorders, because I think that gave me the best kind of exposure, pun intended, and hands on practice, really seeing day to day how to implement effective ERP for people living with those conditions.
B
And Mia, with graduate school, you went to a pretty behaviorally based program and worked with some big names in the field of behavioral based treatment and then went on to also work at a hospital system and got trained more so in the OCD realm and then came over to nocd, correct?
C
That's right, yeah. Started working with OCD and anxiety disorders in graduate school. But really it was even after graduate school where I really got to dig in deep to, to erp.
B
Now most of the therapists who come in to work for NOCD are a master's level therapist. And Mia, I think one of the things you and I see all the time in the interview process is people did not get training in OCD in graduate school. So. And Taylor, you did not at all get training in ocd. I know that personally, but I can say that it's not a slam on your graduate school, but I know you've got none whatsoever. Right?
A
Not. Yep.
C
I think that's common. Yeah. Yeah.
B
What are we expecting for people who are coming in to apply at NOCD and what do we want to see from them even though they aren't already experts in obsessive compulsive disorder?
C
That's a great question. Yeah. You really don't have to have had the previous experience with erp. We know that that's legitimately very rare due to, you know, what we're pointing out about graduate school programs. So we want to see people with a passion for the work, with a passion for evidence based treatments. That's very important. People who would consider themselves lifelong learners and are very open to receiving feedback and taking that role of a student through our training and beyond so that they really can step into that expert. Expert role.
B
Yeah. That student mentality.
A
Right.
B
To go back and to learn. Because I'd contend our training is definitely more than anything you ever got in graduate school about any one condition. And Taylor, can you speak to that a little bit about just the depth of the training that we will put people through in OCD and related conditions?
A
Yeah, certainly. And one of many reasons we've put together the training we have is because of everything we've been chatting about up to this point, literally. I'm not kidding. I got zero information on OCD my entire grad program. I worked in other clinical environments after graduation. There was no mention of it. And while there's a wealth of information and opportunities to learn about cognitive behavioral therapy in general, it's even harder to find specialized focus and education on exposure and response prevention. So we wanted to make sure when we were developing a training program here for our new therapists at nocd, that we were basically going to disseminate roughly a semester's worth of graduate level education just focused on OCD and how to implement ERP for people living with that condition. So the first three months that a therapist is with us, they're getting a very comprehensive, very thorough training on everything they're going to need to know to not just feel competent, but really feel confident in the clinical care they are providing to our members. And that's. That's the name of the game right there. We want to make sure we are administering a really high quality training to ensure that Our members are getting the best care possible.
B
And Mia, that spans the lifespan and the training that we provide to people too. So we'll do training from children all the way through adults, right?
C
Yes, absolutely. We do training for everyone that we would, you know, be able to see here. And that goes all the way down to five, Right.
B
A lot of people maybe come in and even are fearful of seeing children if they've never done that before. And so that's why we make sure that after that first initial training that you go through, we do have training for children and adolescents and applying OCD and ERP diagnostics and specific treatment to that population. Because again, our goal is to make sure that therapists are as comfortable as possible providing evidence based treatment. And that's why people come here to docd is to really receive that evidence based care. You know, Mia, your work in residential work and higher levels of care, similar to what Taylor and I did, really did showcase what a lack of evidence based treatment could do for people. So can you just kind of talk about how what our goal is is to catch people earlier so hopefully they, they don't have to go to those higher levels of care because they're now finally getting that evidence based treatment early on in their life instead of having to wait until it's boiling over? Basically?
C
Yes, absolutely. So a lot of the people we would see at residential levels of care and even sometimes they would have to start an inpatient depending on, you know, certain compulsions they might be engaging in. A lot of those people had had inappropriate, I'll say, treatment for years by the time that they made it to those higher levels of care where very well meaning therapists who really wanted to help them didn't have the necessary tools and were doing things that looked more like talk therapy. I don't want to, you know, talk down on talk therapy, but there's a time and a place and OCD is not it. What we've, we see is that, you know, something like talk therapy can really become almost like a co ruminative process, really, the therapist engaging in a compulsion with the client and you know, this can actually exacerbate the symptoms. So I mean, what's the number, Patrick? The average number of years previously that
B
people would go 14 to 17, right?
C
14 to 17 years. We really, really want to cut way down on that number and intervene earlier so that people hopefully don't need those higher levels of care. So that's why bringing in new therapists and training them to be experts is so important.
B
Taylor, can you Describe how we designed the curriculum and, you know, how it's evolved even over time. I mean, just we went from, you know, just a more compact training to this, this level that we have today, which is, which is a really, really robust experience that people go through. So maybe less on the history of that, but more so on the. What have been the goals of the treatment all along and how have we evolved the treatment to assure that therapists can go into those first sessions with their members after training and approach it as if they've been doing ERP for a lifetime?
A
Yeah, so I would say one of the primary goals is really making sure we are providing really, really detailed information on the nature of OCD itself. Those of us that have been working with this condition for a long time know that it can be a fairly nuanced and complicated neuropsychiatric disorder to really understand. And for, you know, a very skilled, excellent clinician who might have been practicing as more of a generalist, they're not going to necessarily be able to just recognize all the different possible manifestations of OCD symptoms that you might be seeing with kind of a brief training. So a lot of information day in and day out, every day of training on really understanding OCD itself, understanding what it is about the condition that causes so much disruption in the person's life, why it's causing them so much distress and impairment in functioning, and kind of, to Mia's point, a little bit of information on why some other methods of treatment are simply not effective for this particular condition. Then we get into the nuts and bolts of exposure and response prevention. We go through the steps because this is, you know, a very structured method of treatment. It's one of the things that makes it so effective for OCD and anxiety disorders. Lay out the steps very clearly as far as what the process is like to go through ERP with someone living with OCD or an anxiety disorder. And our trainees get tons of opportunity to practice. So the way the training has been developed over time is that we're trying to appeal to clinicians with all different learning styles. So some of it is more of kind of that traditional didactic classroom based training. It's a little bit more lecture based, but there are always opportunities for discussions. We allow our therapists lots of opportunities to ask questions so they're really understanding the components of what we're trying to teach them. We have a lot of video based demonstrations of what this stuff looks like in the room. What is it going to look like to be going through a diagnostic Clinical interview with a potential client with a member. Right. What is it going to look like to explain the rationale for what ERP is and why we think someone living with OCD could potentially benefit from trying it. So they're seeing demonstrations, all that stuff, and then like I said, they get chances to practice. Right. Within their first week here, they are practicing what it might be like to explain ERP to a potential member. They are trying to explain the nature of OCD and provide psychoeducation on that to, you know, fellow therapists in their cohort. So we've found over time that that mix of teaching a few different ways and really it's the hands on practice that really helps people feel confident. So as soon as they go live with their very first member with ocd, they feel like they're in a really good spot to provide that person with the care they deserve.
C
As our resident actress, I would like to speak to the excellent of all video demonstrations.
A
The demonstrations are excellent and it is largely in thanks to Mia. She definitely wins the best actress award.
B
I don't even know your name anymore because I see you acting with so many different names in these videos. I don't even know who you are. Mia, after that training and people go live, we, we don't train and dump, do we?
C
No, absolutely not even. Well, just speaking to what Taylor mentioned about practice, there's those ongoing practice opportunities, there's quite a few of them and they go well beyond those initial first couple of weeks that are more didactic. So there's those opportunities. We have a lot of trainings you'll do, Patrick, for the entire network, even people outside of onboarding. And we have our own continuing education program that is free, so check it out if you need some ces and obviously that is available to anyone. Right. But our, our own clinicians make good use of that training as well.
B
And then we also have constant case consultation groups running, correct?
C
Yes. Almost every hour during the business day, I would say, and some after hours as well, that you can drop into those consultation groups and there will be a clinical leader there who's able to consult with you. But you also have a group of peers of therapists who will weigh in, give you ideas for experience exposures and for response prevention. And you really just kind of talk through, you know, your difficult or more challenging cases.
B
And one of the newest things that we're doing too is with the AI kind of revolution, we've created some AI based members where our therapists can practice with them and do sessions with a member and, and be able to get feedback from that experience about what skills to hone in on. So it's really exciting that even if there isn't a case consultation group going on, if you still want to practice and you can't get a colleague to do it, you can practice with some of our simulated members also. So there's, there's just so much opportunity here, I think for people to really become an expert, develop that expertise and get to become comfortable in doing this really life changing experience of a therapy that we offer.
C
Yeah. And you know, I didn't even mention our lending library. We have.
B
Oh yeah.
C
Experts outside of NOCD come in and give talks to our therapists as well. And those are accessible while you can go live? I always prefer to if possible. But they're accessible at any time.
A
Yeah. And I do have to say one of the unique things about, you know, working at NOCD is, you know, we have this excellent training team. Everybody really loves working with our new clinicians and being able to provide them with all the information they need to really feel strong in the work they're doing. Right. We've got this incredible clinical advising team. They're the ones that are offering those practice opportunities and they're doing one on one coaching with our new therapists as well. But on top of all that, we've got the continuing education like you guys mentioned. They can practice with AI test members, they can sit in and observe sessions when our members consent to that. And on top of all that and all the ongoing training, they have this network of close to 1,000 other clinicians that are also there to support them. And Mia mentioned the consultation groups. It's been really wonderful to see our more established clinicians time and time again step up and offer any kind of help or support they can to our newer therapists to really help them feel comfortable.
C
And I would also add, I'm going to go out on a limb and say we have probably the very best showing at conferences. Right. Of therapists. So that's very encouraged. Those are great opportunities to meet your fellow therapists in person and have a lot of really great learning.
B
Yeah. What are you most proud of in terms of the work that we've done here for the OCD community and for therapists in learning how to treat ocd.
C
Speaking. Well, I'll speak more specifically to what I'm focused on right now. I'm very proud of the idea that, and this is in partnership, I'll say, with our excellent recruiters. There's a whole team that works on this, but finding therapists that would be really excellent at this and then vetting them, making sure everyone's, you know, somebody who's going to give excellent, life changing therapy to our members and then being able to pass them on to Taylor to be, to be trained and ready. It's just been so such an issue for this community that we have this amazing effective treatment. But there haven't been clinicians that have been trained in it. So up until, you know, really no CD came about. Even if you could find somebody to work with you, if you're someone with ocd, they are often private pay. And then that's another barrier. Right. And here we are with, you know, this big network now of people who have been extensively trained and continue to be trained that are ready to do amazing work and we accept insurance. It's, it's a really cool thing to be a part of.
A
Yeah, yeah, I, I definitely agree. One thing, I often let therapists that are joining us that have not worked with ocd, have not done ERP before. What I let them know is I've stayed so specialized in this area for so long and I know the two of you have as well, because as a therapist this is really rewarding work. It's really fulfilling. Like we can't use the phrase life changing enough. We truly see people make meaningful gains through ERP and learn how to successfully overcome the symptoms of their OCD that at one point were close to debilitating for them. Right. So we know this and then what's been really incredible to see and what I'm most proud of is seeing all these clinicians join us time and time again who take to the work and they also love it. Literally we're getting that feedback. Right? I love erp. This is incredible. People are so proud of their members when they see them make progress. So having that really positive impact on our clinicians, seeing them really take to this method of treatment. So they're having that rewarding, fulfilling experience. And all the while the double bonus is that our members are getting better. Right, right. So, so it's been so cool to see.
B
One thing that I'm really proud of is that our therapists are trained. It just in what I would consider a very world class training experience actually because it, it gives them the tools then that they can provide life changing experiences to the members who come here at nocd. Right now our training is comprehensive, right? It is, it is very comprehensive experience. But the goal of that is that somebody does feel at the end of it as if, yes, I have the tools to be an expert in this. Right? So this is just deep training that I think really helps our therapist stand out. And like Mia said, you know, I'm always proud when we're at the International OCD conference and we've got 60 no CD therapists running around the place, you know, with the. The largest number of people there wearing our T shirts and things like that, and. And really interacting with everybody who's at the conference, too. And so that's what's really, really great. And we know, too, that this is something that I think is so important for therapists listening, but also in case there are people with OCD listening who are considering no cd. Just because somebody's profile says that they treat OCD doesn't mean that they know how to treat ocd. Right? There are. There's a certain publication out there that will allow you to list yourself, and you can put all your specialties. And when you see someone who says, I specialize, and then they click off 37 different things that they specialize in, I'd be very, very, very wary of that person. I don't think you can trust them, because I. I don't specialize in 37 things in my life, much less in psychology. I mean, so. But I don't know if you two have a similar feeling to that or not.
C
No.
A
Yeah, yeah, no, I feel the same way. And I think that's, you know, one of the things that unfortunately in the past was standing in the way of people with OCD really getting proper treatment for it. Right? Because you don't know you're reaching out for help. You see someone's profile and they say, yeah, I treat ocd. You don't know. So we just want potential members to really know and trust that if they come to receive help here at nocd, that person is truly a specialist. That is our goal. We want all of our clinicians to feel like they are truly OCD ERP
C
specialists, you know, And I also want to speak to. Well, some of you that are clinicians might be listening right now and thinking, oh, gosh, am I one of these people that have been working with OCD and maybe I shouldn't have been. That's okay. I will tell you, that's one of the most common things we hear in the interviews. You know, people do some prep. Makes sense. You're joining a network doing ERP for ocd. You want to know what it's about. And they'll come in the interview and say, I've just Got to tell you, when I learned about the different ways OCD can present, I thought of this client from the past, that client from the past, this one. And I just wish I knew then what I know now. So that's a really common experience and I think, you know, don't beat yourself up if that has been your experience. ERP just hasn't been disseminated the way it has needed to be. But you can, you can change that Now.
B
I tell all new therapists, be ready for the month of guilt. It just is something that happens. You will have a month of guilt and then like, okay, I've learned and I'm going to move on. So I'd say this as we kind of get toward the end here, there are four key components that really make our approach unique. The first one, and Mia, this is what you've been so in the weeds in, is a really in depth and selective interview process. We want empathy, cultural awareness, the ability to build relationships with people from all backgrounds and can you talk, Mia, just even how our. Our interview is unique in the sense of we're going to focus on building rapport. We're going to give some vignettes and things like that. What, what's it like to interview with us?
C
Yeah, we've been told it's a very different experience. So, you know, be aware of that. We've actually often been told, thank you. I've learned so much from this interview. So the interview is very interactive. We ask questions, they can be challenging, but we also give feedback. So we want to help people learn through the process and we want to see you demonstrate your skills. So yeah, we are going to check in on things like rapport building and how you are able to, to relate to us as interviews and how you might be able to relate to our members. It's a unique experience. I don't want to give too much away.
B
No, we won't give too much more than that. But yeah, yeah, Step two is the training. And Taylor, that's where you take over. So you know this deep understanding of OCD and the symptoms and the subtypes, how effective OCD can be treated with exposure and response prevention. Right. And that you can also work with co occurring conditions too because we treat other things than ocd. And you do trainings on that also.
A
Yes. Right. So the first thing people are trained on when they join us here is actually the modality itself. We start with a very comprehensive introduction to what exposure and response prevention is, how it works and why it works as well as it does for OCD and all anxiety disorders. And we know we have this modality that's effective and we know it works well for ocd. But when you know it is empirically supported care for people with all anxiety disorders, why not help people living with those conditions as well? So the short answer is yes, we're not just treating ocd, we are treating all anxiety disorders because ERP is so highly effective for all of those conditions.
B
Step three, which we haven't discussed much, but it is important. You don't just train and then go live. You have to pass some tests. Right. We want to be sure that anybody coming here to NOCD can apply the training to members. So we'll. We'll have therapists here who work for NOCD who will be mock members, and we will have new therapists who've gone through the training, do initial sessions and work with them. And to be sure that they have taken what they've learned, they've processed it, they can spit it back out in an eloquent way to anybody that they're working with and that they have a comfort level not only with the treatment, but even our electronic health record and the way that we do things here at nocd, because we don't want someone's. A member's first experience being with someone who's not seen anybody before through our whole platform. So we do a testing experience to make sure that that therapist is ready to go, to be set live. And then, as you've both said, we don't stop learning there. We have case consultations, we have continuing education, we have monthly, all staff meetings. There are things that we will continuously do to assure that anybody who has come to NOCD knows that this is their therapeutic home and that they have support all the way through.
C
And we're really on top of. I think it's important to say we're really on top of the literature, too, and what's coming out. So, you know, we recently made a little change to our protocol for one of our treatments that was in response to, you know, what we discovered had come out most recently in the research. And we. We're on top of that as well. And we can help learn to be on top of that, too.
B
Yeah. Any final words before we sign off today from either of you?
A
I mean, I'll reiterate what I said earlier because I believe it to be true. Like administering this kind of treatment for people living with such a misunderstood condition and seeing the positive impact it has on their lives over and over again. It's Just really cool. It really is very rewarding, fulfilling work. So I've encouraged therapists I know in my own life who don't specialize in these areas to learn more about it. Because you could have a really rewarding, really meaningful career if you chose to really hone in and specialize in treating people with OCD and anxiety using erp.
B
Yeah.
C
And I'll just speak to the experience of onboarding and our training. This is an experience that is like no other. It's, you know, you have so much support through it. There's so many resources. You're going to be trained to become an expert in a treatment that is so effective, where you will see outcomes like you've never seen before. You will see people turn their lives around and there's so much pride to be had in that. And the experience of the training is just really enjoyable and you know, it's, it's like nothing else, I would say.
B
Awesome. Well, it's been an honor to chat with two of you. Dr. Mia Nunez, Taylor Newendorp. Thank you both for being here today describing what it's like for a therapist who's thinking about joining NOCD to come into the experience through the interviewing process, the training process, the testing process and then the support that they will continue to get as they transition from that into being a NOCD therapist. I really appreciate your time today. Thank you.
C
Thank you, Patrick.
A
Yeah, thanks Patrick.
B
It's so important for us at NOCD that we bring world class treatment to everybody. We want that to be to clinicians so that they learn how to apply erp. And we want that to be received by people with ocd. We don't want them suffering anymore. Our mission is to invest in our therapists to ensure that they are equipped in doing this life changing care. If you are a licensed therapist and you have interest in delivering exposure and response prevention therapy and other evidence based treatments for OCD and related conditions, we want to talk to you. Right. We want to see if you're a fit to join our network. So head to our career page on nocd.com that's nocd.com if I could go on about our training, you know, I would and would just myself but I thought it was best to really bring people here today to talk to you specifically who are hands on in that interview experience, hands on in that training experience. And I really appreciate their time today. So thank you both for being here. Thanks for watching. We'll see you again soon.
Host: Dr. Patrick McGrath, Chief Clinical Officer, NOCD
Guests: Dr. Mia Nunez (NOCD Interview Process Lead), Taylor Newendorp (NOCD Training & Onboarding Lead)
Date: March 1, 2026
This episode departs from the usual firsthand OCD stories to spotlight how NOCD trains and develops its world-class therapists. Dr. Patrick McGrath is joined by Dr. Mia Nunez and Taylor Newendorp, who walk listeners through the rigorous, evidence-based training journey—covering recruitment, comprehensive onboarding, and the ongoing support system designed to ensure therapists become specialists in exposure and response prevention (ERP) for OCD and related anxiety disorders.
This episode demystifies how NOCD methodically cultivates ERP specialists—combining a unique interview approach, intensive training, multi-layered support, and a validating, collaborative community. The rigorous standards are not only about therapist competence but about guaranteeing life-changing care, accessibility, and real hope for anyone affected by OCD and related conditions.
Useful for Prospective Therapists:
Reassuring for People with OCD:
(For therapist applicants: see nocd.com/careers to learn more.)