OCD Therapy in Barrie, Ontario

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder — diagnosed or not, in whatever form the obsessions and compulsions take
• Intrusive thoughts that are distressing precisely because they run against everything you value
• Checking, washing, counting, ordering or repeating that has begun to take over the day
• Mental compulsions — reviewing, praying, replaying, silently neutralizing — that no one else can see
• Reassurance-seeking that never quite settles the question
• Rigid or obsessive rules around food and the body — where OCD and disordered eating overlap
• OCD alongside anxiety, low mood or trauma — where the loop has become tangled with something older

OCD is far more varied — and far more exhausting — than the tidy stereotype of it. Some of what you may recognize:

• A thought that arrives, unwanted and frightening, and will not leave until you have done something about it
• Relief from the ritual that lasts minutes, and then the doubt creeps back in
• Knowing, in one part of your mind, that the checking is unnecessary — and being unable to stop
• Hours lost to reviewing, replaying or mentally arguing with a thought
• Avoiding places, objects, people or subjects because of what they might set off
• Shame about the content of the thoughts, and a terror of what they might mean about you
• Asking the same question of the same people, and never quite believing the answer
• Exhaustion, and a life that has grown narrower around the rituals

None of these means you are dangerous, careless or losing your mind. They are the workings of OCD — and they are what this work is designed to meet.

Every session is with Wanda herself. The approach is chosen with you rather than applied to you, and it usually draws on several threads at once.

Understanding the loop. With cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), Wanda works closely with you to understand the connection between your thoughts, your feelings and your actions — how an intrusive thought becomes distress, how distress demands a ritual, and how the ritual teaches the mind that the thought was dangerous after all.

Exposure, at your pace. Within that framework, exposure work allows you to approach your fears or triggers gradually, and to practise not engaging in the usual compulsion, so that over time the distress can rise and settle on its own. This is never forced. It is planned with you, step by step, and Wanda moves at a pace you can bear.

Beneath the symptom. OCD often has a story: what the rituals began as a way of managing, what the fear underneath is really about. Where it helps, Wanda’s broader approach — including psychodynamic understanding — makes room for that story, so that the work is not only about the loop but about the person caught in it.

The occupational therapy lens. As a Registered Occupational Therapist, Wanda attends to how OCD intersects with daily life — the routines that have grown around the rituals, the time they take, and the activities and relationships that have been squeezed out — and works with you to gently rebuild a day that is yours again.

Alongside your medical care. Wanda works collaboratively with clients’ medical teams where medication is part of care. She does not prescribe or diagnose; her work is with the person living with OCD, alongside the physicians who treat it.

Without judgement. Wanda has done her own deep inner healing work, and she is not afraid of what you are carrying. Nothing you say about the content of your thoughts will shock her, and none of it will be taken as evidence against you.

OCD is exhausting, and exhaustion can shade into depression. If the rituals have consumed the day, if the shame has become unbearable, if self-worth has collapsed, or if you find yourself thinking that others would be better off without you, that is worth bringing to someone rather than waiting out.

This page is educational and is not a substitute for emergency care. If you are in immediate danger, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency department. In Canada, the Suicide Crisis Helpline can be reached by calling or texting 988, at any hour.

The first consultation is free. It is a conversation, not an intake interview — a chance to say some of it out loud and to see whether this feels like the right fit. There is no obligation to continue.

Sessions are available in person in Barrie at 80 Bradford Street, Suite 801 (Entrance Door 3), and by secure video or telephone across Canada and internationally. Exposure work can be practised between sessions at home, and video sessions suit that well. Current rates are on the fees page.

• Anxiety counsellingWhen the fear underneath the rituals is the thing that needs attention.
• Eating disorder therapyWhen rigid or obsessive rules have gathered around food and the body.
• Depression therapyWhen the exhaustion of the rituals has worn down into low mood.
• Trauma and PTSD therapyWhen checking and control began as a way of surviving something.
• Stress therapyWhen pressure turns the volume up on intrusive thoughts.
• Spiritual directionWhen the obsessions have taken a religious or moral shape.

Wanda’s office is centrally located in Barrie and is used by clients from across Simcoe County, including Orillia, Midland, Innisfil, Angus, Bradford, Bracebridge and Gravenhurst. For those further out, or for anyone for whom leaving the house is part of what is hard, secure virtual sessions are available throughout Canada and internationally.

If you are ready, the first conversation is free. You can reach Wanda at 705-321-4297, by email at wandanayduk@gmail.com, or through the contact page. There is no need to have the words ready first.

The first conversation is free and there is no obligation. Call 705-321-4297, email wandanayduk@gmail.com, or use the contact form — Wanda replies personally.