When the rituals are running the show.

What does OCD look like in a young person?

Rituals that must be completed: washing, checking, counting, arranging, confessing, asking the same question until the answer feels right. Underneath the rituals are intrusive thoughts the child did not ask for and cannot shake, and the rituals are their attempt to make the dread stop. Children often hide it well; parents tend to see the time it eats and the distress when a ritual is interrupted.

When should we seek help?

When rituals are taking real time, when the family has been recruited into them (answering the same reassurance question, running the extra wash), or when your child is frightened by their own thoughts. Obsessive patterns grow by being obeyed, so earlier help genuinely is easier help.

How does Sandra work with it?

With more than a decade of experience supporting children and teens with OCD and obsessive patterns, using CBT-informed, age-appropriate methods: understanding the worry machine, externalising it through creative work, and building the child's power to notice a thought without obeying it. Parents learn how to support without accommodating, which is the part most families have never been shown.

Sessions run in person in North Vancouver and online across the UK and Canada. Times and logistics live on those pages; every fee is on the fees page. Not sure counselling is what your child needs? Start with that question, or counselling vs coaching.