Hello Brave Ones!
Wow! We are so grateful to be celebrating one year of OCD MN! Like many of you, we have had quite a journey from March 2020 to 2021. Our clinic and our team have overcome challenges and triumphs in our first year. We wanted to share a bit of our story with you and reflect on how this last year might help us shape the future of our clinic.
OCD MN opened March 1st, 2020. We moved into our new office space in Richfield and got to see clients in person for about the first two weeks of business. Our mission was for the three of us (Erin, Emily, and Jayme) to join forces to provide evidence-based CBT to clients who are diagnosed with OCD and/or related disorders in the Twin Cities area. We had dreams of hosting events to bring other ERP providers and our community together, expanding our reach to educate and collaborate with communities outside of our own, and providing a safe space for support groups, individual clients, and therapist consultations.
After a few weeks of being open there were government-issued shut downs and we all grappled with what this meant for our clinic and mental health services. We are so grateful to have been able to transition to telehealth with the COVID-19 pandemic, which limited disruption in caring for our clients. We thought this new way of operating would be temporary; a year later we are thriving with telehealth. It has allowed us to work on exposures in clients’ environments, reach rural communities, and meet the work schedules of our clients.
While the world certainly looked very different than what we expected when we opened, we adapted our strategy and worked to bring our mission to life virtually. For OCD Awareness Week in October, we had the pleasure of connecting with two lovely individuals, Valerie and Almah, who graciously shared their experience with Being Black with OCD, we curated a beautiful virtual art gallery with works by individuals with OCD, we brought you Brian Piatt’s story of hope and experience with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Neil Hilborn shared a recording of himself reciting one of his original poems.
We also took a deep look inward. Like many in our community, we were disgusted at the death of George Floyd by the MPD. We felt the impacts of George Floyd’s murder with our clients, approached difficult conversations, and started our own work on facing privilege and creating an inclusive environment for diverse populations. The importance of this part of our mission has been magnified as we watched with horror the acts of white supremacy at our nation’s capital, as we see the increasing racism and violence towards Asian Americans, the continued racism and police brutality faced by Black individuals, the lack of accountability for police officers, the racism and separations of immigrant families, the output of misinformation and unreliable statistics on diverse populations due to a lack of research and inclusion, and all the other injustices and inequities that continue to uphold a system of oppression. We see and celebrate diverse individuals and will continue to do our own anti-racist work to provide a safe space for all. For more information, check out our Diversity Statement. This is a lifelong process that we are committed to prioritizing in our business and personal lives.
Looking back on the past year, our voice has grown more steady and confident in the online world. Jayme has worked to establish a biweekly Newsletter aimed at providing brief information on mental health and coping skills as well as an opportunity to share with our community outside resources. We also put out monthly Blog posts where we dive deep into topics, interviews and current events. Emily has been busy providing simple, easy guided meditations for beginners. Her podcast, Braveme, was started with the goal of creating scripts that were short and to the point. Erin has curated our Instagram account with posts that range from quirky humor to brutally honest narrations. We hope to continue to provide these resources to our followers.
Looking forward, we are excited to continue using our platform online to support clients and our community safely. We hope to continue to provide reliable and valid information on OCD and anxiety, host virtual support groups, create virtual webinars and training opportunities, start up a virtual ERP therapist consultation team, contine outreach, and grow as a clinic. When it is safe to do so, we can’t wait to meet and support our clients and community in person too.
Stay Brave!
-The OCD MN Team