Treating Contamination OCD Using the Mastery Approach

[2 CE] This course trains clinicians to treat contamination OCD using the Mastery approach, blending ERP, ACT, and safe behavior strategies. It improves functioning in challenging cases and is widely implemented in major clinics nationwide.

State-of-the-art Continuing Education

Expert Instructors

Convenient Online Learning

Course curriculum

1. Seminar Video
1. Post-Test
1. Course Evaluation Survey

About this course

$59.00
CE Credits: 2.0 hours
Self-Paced Video-Based Course
Level: Introductory

About This Course

This course teaches clinicians how to recognize and treat contamination OCD, a common but challenging-to-treat form of obsessive-compulsive disorder that represents roughly half of its cases.

This course focuses on the functional-based Mastery treatment approach, a synthesis of exposure and response prevention (ERP), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and emerging literature on the use of judicious safety behaviors to improve functioning in cases such as disgust, neurodiversity and more where triggers do not directly habituate. This is a humane and well-tolerated approach that has now been taught and implemented at major clinics nationwide for cases of contamination OCD.

Recommended Reading: The Contamination OCD Workbook by Richard S. Gallagher, LMFT

Course created: January 2025

Learning Objectives

At the completion of the course, participants will be able to:

Describe contamination OCD: its definition, prevalence, case examples. DSM-V diagnostic definition, and comparison to other fears.

Describe the evolution of treatment approaches for contamination OCD, including exposure and response prevention (ERP), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and the Mastery approach based on practicing improved functioning.

Describe how and when to apply the Mastery approach for treating contamination OCD – particularly for cases involving disgust and/or other non-habituating triggers.

Instructor(s)

Richard Gallagher, LMFT

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

[email protected]

Rich Gallagher LMFT is a psychotherapist specializing in anxiety disorders and OCD treatment, based in Ithaca, NY. He is a 2014 graduate of the IOCDF’s intensive BTTI clinical training program for OCD treatment, has presented twice at IOCDF conferences, and has taught CEU programs on anxiety and OCD treatment to over 200 clinicians in upstate New York.Rich is the author of The Contamination OCD Workbook, the first-ever self-help workbook on contamination OCD, as well as numerous self-help books on anxiety disorders and communications skills for major publishers, including an Amazon #1 book on Anxiety and Phobias as well as a finalist for 2008 Business Book of the Year.

Continuing Education

Course Approvals

The Center for Emotional Health of Greater Philadelphia, LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Center for Emotional Health of Greater Philadelphia, LLC maintains responsibility for this program and its content.The Center for Emotional Health of Greater Philadelphia, LLC is not responsible to verify that American Psychological Association continuing education credits are approved by an attendee's respective state licensing Board.

The Center for Emotional Health of Greater Philadelphia has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No.7263. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The Center for Emotional Health of Greater Philadelphia is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

The Center for Emotional Health of Greater Philadelphia, LLC, #1820, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. The Center for Emotional Health of Greater Philadelphia, LLC maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 6/15/2023 - 6/15/2026.

*A post test must be taken and passed in order to receive CE credit. Participants may retake the posttest a maximum of 3 times to receive a passing score. A qualifying passing score is 80% or above.