Welcome to Narralis, the home for OCD and the range of obsessional anxieties and behaviours that so often exist alongside it. Whether you are living with OCD yourself, or you are a practitioner working in this field, this is the place for you.
For clients
Perhaps you have lived with OCD for years. You have tried everything and nothing has worked, or it worked for a while and then the checking and the rituals came back. Or maybe there are no visible rituals at all, just the thoughts: intrusive, unwanted and relentless. This is primarily obsessional OCD, often called Pure O, where the compulsions happen inside the mind rather than out in the world. Or sometimes a fear becomes so great that it brings a complete loss of control and phobias develop. These can often feel irrational but exist within an extreme range of health or social anxieties. Then, one avoided place at a time, the world grows smaller to keep you safe, and it becomes an anxiety so constant that you can no longer remember life without it.
This is where I can help.
Some clients come to me having struggled to find a treatment that works, while for others I am the first place they have turned. Either way, my approach is relational and pluralistic. In practice, that means I don’t apply a single method to everyone: we decide together what will help you. Along the way, I will sometimes step outside our conversation to talk about how we are working together, which is called meta-communication. Anything I offer you is an invitation, and you are always free to decline it.
The origins of OCD
What I have found, time and again, is that many of my clients experienced disrupted relationships in their earliest childhood. And what grew out of those experiences is a breathtakingly intelligent survival response, developed to keep your young self safe. This work has led me to develop my own approach, Narralis, designed specifically for people with OCD, severe anxiety, phobias and hoarding, and for those who have struggled with addiction and are now in recovery.
Together, we will take time to understand what the younger part of you had to adapt to in order to survive. It may feel as if your rituals have been created to keep you safe, like living in a fortified castle with a moat that keeps every threat at bay. But whilst this castle has protected you, it may also have left you feeling very alone and isolated. We will work towards trusting that you can keep yourself safe without the rituals, compulsions and obsessive worrying, and that the world can be safe enough.
You may be exhausted from trying so many things. Or perhaps no one has ever asked you to tell your story, as the focus has always been on changing your behaviour. Either way, I offer a free telephone consultation to answer any questions before you decide whether to book an appointment.
For practitioners
Narralis is rooted in attachment theory, and I explore it in depth in my book, Witnessing the Unwitnessed Child.
I am currently developing practitioner training in my Narralis approach, which will be available in the future. Alongside the training, I will offer supervision tailored to your work with Narralis. This will complement your existing clinical supervision rather than replace it.
If you would like to be notified when the training launches, please get in touch. In the meantime, I also offer one-off consultation sessions: an hour of my time to talk through a client you are working with and explore how a Narralis perspective might help.