General Tips

• Parents should be an advocate and encourage their child to use techniques learned in therapy
• Parents should expect their child’s therapist to explain how treatment works
• Parents should expect the therapist to teach the child skills to use
• All caregivers of the child should encourage the same techniques to help the child
• Parents should avoid becoming a victim of their child’s anxiety

Accommodations and Reassurance (what they are)

• Reassurance-seeking is used by children to manage fears, and many parents provide it to make their child feel better in the moment
• “Family accommodation” is a form of reassurance where family members participate in the obsessions and compulsions to decrease the anxiety of the child  
• Families may stop taking vacations, and avoid certain activities or outings, all in hopes of relieving their child’s anxiety
• Families may avoid using specific words or apologize for using the words if the child has a fear or dislike of certain words  

Accommodations and Reassurance (why to avoid them)

• Making accommodations helps your child in the moment with their anxiety, but it does not give your child a chance to overcome their discomfort  
• Always reassuring your child inhibits their ability to use new coping techniques and skills, it reinforces the concerning behavior
• By avoiding accommodations as a caregiver, you allow the child to work through their discomfort and use the skills learned in therapy to cope with their anxiety

OCD Interventions (helpful tips as the caregiver)

• Exposure therapy is one approach to treating OCD and while it may seem extreme, it is highly effective
• Remember that skills learned in therapy can become healthy habits only when consistently practiced
• Your child needs to continually face situations that prompt anxiety and learn how to work through those situations
• Through treatment, caregivers can also learn new ways to respond when their children get “stuck” and how to encourage their child to rely on coping skills
• Children need to be taught to “boss back” their anxiety versus relying on their caregivers to reduce it for them
• It is the parent’s job to remind their child of the skills they have developed in treatment and to use them outside of treatment
• The goal is for the child to gain more and more independence, so the family can experience lessened anxiety around the child’s obsessions and/or compulsions 

This publication was adapted from information from: https://childmind.org/article/kids-and-ocd-the-parents-role-in-treatment/

Reviewed by: PL M.D., TT D.O. | 07/2023