A new treatment is on the way for Kiwis impacted by OCD.
Charity Open Closed Doors is bringing The Bergen Four Day OCD programme to our shores - the treatment is internationally recognised and has a near 70 percent success rate.
Clinical psychologist Dr Ben Sedley travelled to Singapore to learn about the programme first-hand, and he was impressed by the results.
"Once you learn how to recognise all the compulsions and stop them and you've got a one-on-one clinician with you side by side for two days of doing the exposure response prevention, plus some psychoeducation - when you have all these thing together, you really have the chance to just get the momentum."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News TALKSB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
But right now, help maybe on the way for OCD
sufferers in New Zealand. There is currently a lack of
treatment options for OCD here, but charity Open Closed Doors
is bringing the Bergen four Day OCD program to our shows.
The treatment internationally recognized and it has near seventy percent
success rate. Clinical psychologist doctor Ben Sedley is New Zealand's
(00:35):
foremost expert on OCD, and he joins me, now, good morning, Ben,
thanks for your time.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Good morning, how are you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I'm good. Thank you to tell me you have seen
the Bergen four day treatment firsthand. You travel to Singapore
to learn about the program and see the results. What
did you make of it?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
It was mind blowing. Five New Zealand psychologists went over
to Singapore watched them run this program and we were like,
there's no way this program can actually match the stats
that we're seeing. And we went in and we watch
two weeks to four day programs. Who watched them run
the program twice and both weeks we are like seeing
changes that we just didn't think would be possible in
(01:17):
such a short amount of time, we saw people who
OCD had stopped them driving their car, or dressing themselves,
or making decisions, or just doing normal household chores, And
within two and a half days, really by the end
of the second or third day, we were seeing them
do things they hadn't done in years and years and
(01:39):
feeling confident that they could go on to be their
own OCD therapists to keep the momentum going, to keep
these changes they put in place going for their life.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So what is it about this particular treatment that works
and work so quickly compared to other compared to other
treatments that currently exist.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
So it's the same treatment. The best treatment for OCD
is it called exposure response prevention, where you expose yourself
to the things that trigger the anxiety and then you
don't do the compulsions that reduce the distress short term,
but over time increase your need to do those compulsions
and make you feel less safe in the world. So
(02:24):
it's the same principles, but when you do it with
a lot more precision and help people understand to look
out for all the different compulsions, not just the observable
ones like hand washing, but also looking out for the
internal things like I'm giving myself reassurance or I'm making
a compromise with my OCD saying I'll do this thing
(02:45):
now and then later on I'll do something to make
myself feel better. Once you learn how to recognize all
the compulsions and stop them, and you've got a one
on one clinician with you side by side for two
or three for two days of doing the exposure response
prevention plus some psycho education. When you have all these
things together, you really get chance to get the momentum,
(03:06):
get the enthusiasm. When you're doing it in the group.
You can see other people doing things they didn't think
we're possible as well, which also makes you more determined
to give this a go. And it can make such
a difference compared to my normal work where I do
weekly therapy and I see people doing amazing progress and therapy,
(03:27):
and then it's a week till I see them again,
and over that week they've had just all those anxious
thoughts in their head they can control. Again.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
How magical, Yeah, it sounds amazing. So how badly is
this needed here?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
This kind of treatment in New Zealam We need to
rethink the ways we do all that mental health treatment
and this is just one example of how it could
be done differently, how we could support more people faster, cheaper,
more effectively. And it's just the need is essential that
I every day I get requests from people hoping to
(04:02):
get private therapy with me because they can't get therapy
through the public service. If they can, it's not specifically trained,
it's not exposure response prevention, and so people just need
this treatment and we need public services to think about
how we can get this into our services. And in
(04:22):
the meantime, we have got an NGO just getting the ground,
getting it happening here so we can show the country
how es central this program is.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
So this is really exciting. The rollout and the training
has been funded by a Norwegian company I believe. Is
that just an initial rollout.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, at some point we have to be self funding.
There have been amazing supporting us to get some of
the initial training and they'll be coming over for our
first programs to make sure we're doing it correctly. But
we'll have to be funding ourselves and we'll have to
we'll depend on the nations and some people funding program privately.
(04:59):
If necessary, and hopefully someone the government or maybe someone
to private tech to getting by this and helping us
get this out there and helping as many people as
we can as quickly as we can.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
You've given us a little bit of an idea about
the impact that not being able to get a diagnosis
or treatment can have on someone with OCD or who
does have that and was in treatment at the moment.
Can you just expand on that a little bit. I
think there's about one hundred thousand people in New Zealand
with OCD. What impact does it have on their day
to day lives?
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Every week? I work with people in my practice who
just every single step and their day can be a struggle,
trying to get to work or school, trying to get
to sleep, trying to have a conversation. I've worked with
people where they can get caught and they hit so
much that just getting their breath to feel right can
feel challenging. OCD is so badly portrayed in media as
(05:52):
someone who just likes things clean or likes to wash
their hands, and there's nothing pleasant about OCD. It's about
it's a real suffering. You get stuck in a hole,
going round and round and the most heartbreaking part about
it is it's completely treatable. People talk about OCD like
a chronic disease, and it's not. If you get the
right treatment, you can beat your OCD. You don't need
(06:14):
to live with it. But unfortunately it's very hard and
can be very expensive to get the right treatment over
here in New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Doctor Ben Sedley, thank you so much for your time
this morning. If you want more information, head to Open
Closed Door. That is the charity which is bringing the
Bergen four day OCD program to our shores. And it's
just great news to hear that there is a program
out there that is working and people who have been
in this field for a long time are so impressed
with it, so hopefully that will help some New Zealanders.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Here for more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin,
listen live to news Talks there'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News TALKSB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
But right now, help maybe on the way for OCD
sufferers in New Zealand. There is currently a lack of
treatment options for OCD here, but charity Open Closed Doors
is bringing the Bergen four Day OCD program to our shows.
The treatment internationally recognized and it has near seventy percent
success rate. Clinical psychologist doctor Ben Sedley is New Zealand's
(00:35):
foremost expert on OCD, and he joins me, now, good morning, Ben,
thanks for your time.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Good morning, how are you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I'm good. Thank you to tell me you have seen
the Bergen four day treatment firsthand. You travel to Singapore
to learn about the program and see the results. What
did you make of it?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
It was mind blowing. Five New Zealand psychologists went over
to Singapore watched them run this program and we were like,
there's no way this program can actually match the stats
that we're seeing. And we went in and we watch
two weeks to four day programs. Who watched them run
the program twice and both weeks we are like seeing
changes that we just didn't think would be possible in
(01:17):
such a short amount of time, we saw people who
OCD had stopped them driving their car, or dressing themselves,
or making decisions, or just doing normal household chores, And
within two and a half days, really by the end
of the second or third day, we were seeing them
do things they hadn't done in years and years and
(01:39):
feeling confident that they could go on to be their
own OCD therapists to keep the momentum going, to keep
these changes they put in place going for their life.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
So what is it about this particular treatment that works
and work so quickly compared to other compared to other
treatments that currently exist.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
So it's the same treatment. The best treatment for OCD
is it called exposure response prevention, where you expose yourself
to the things that trigger the anxiety and then you
don't do the compulsions that reduce the distress short term,
but over time increase your need to do those compulsions
and make you feel less safe in the world. So
(02:24):
it's the same principles, but when you do it with
a lot more precision and help people understand to look
out for all the different compulsions, not just the observable
ones like hand washing, but also looking out for the
internal things like I'm giving myself reassurance or I'm making
a compromise with my OCD saying I'll do this thing
(02:45):
now and then later on I'll do something to make
myself feel better. Once you learn how to recognize all
the compulsions and stop them, and you've got a one
on one clinician with you side by side for two
or three for two days of doing the exposure response
prevention plus some psycho education. When you have all these
things together, you really get chance to get the momentum,
(03:06):
get the enthusiasm. When you're doing it in the group.
You can see other people doing things they didn't think
we're possible as well, which also makes you more determined
to give this a go. And it can make such
a difference compared to my normal work where I do
weekly therapy and I see people doing amazing progress and therapy,
(03:27):
and then it's a week till I see them again,
and over that week they've had just all those anxious
thoughts in their head they can control. Again.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
How magical, Yeah, it sounds amazing. So how badly is
this needed here?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
This kind of treatment in New Zealam We need to
rethink the ways we do all that mental health treatment
and this is just one example of how it could
be done differently, how we could support more people faster, cheaper,
more effectively. And it's just the need is essential that
I every day I get requests from people hoping to
(04:02):
get private therapy with me because they can't get therapy
through the public service. If they can, it's not specifically trained,
it's not exposure response prevention, and so people just need
this treatment and we need public services to think about
how we can get this into our services. And in
(04:22):
the meantime, we have got an NGO just getting the ground,
getting it happening here so we can show the country
how es central this program is.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
So this is really exciting. The rollout and the training
has been funded by a Norwegian company I believe. Is
that just an initial rollout.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah, at some point we have to be self funding.
There have been amazing supporting us to get some of
the initial training and they'll be coming over for our
first programs to make sure we're doing it correctly. But
we'll have to be funding ourselves and we'll have to
we'll depend on the nations and some people funding program privately.
(04:59):
If necessary, and hopefully someone the government or maybe someone
to private tech to getting by this and helping us
get this out there and helping as many people as
we can as quickly as we can.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
You've given us a little bit of an idea about
the impact that not being able to get a diagnosis
or treatment can have on someone with OCD or who
does have that and was in treatment at the moment.
Can you just expand on that a little bit. I
think there's about one hundred thousand people in New Zealand
with OCD. What impact does it have on their day
to day lives?
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Every week? I work with people in my practice who
just every single step and their day can be a struggle,
trying to get to work or school, trying to get
to sleep, trying to have a conversation. I've worked with
people where they can get caught and they hit so
much that just getting their breath to feel right can
feel challenging. OCD is so badly portrayed in media as
(05:52):
someone who just likes things clean or likes to wash
their hands, and there's nothing pleasant about OCD. It's about
it's a real suffering. You get stuck in a hole,
going round and round and the most heartbreaking part about
it is it's completely treatable. People talk about OCD like
a chronic disease, and it's not. If you get the
right treatment, you can beat your OCD. You don't need
(06:14):
to live with it. But unfortunately it's very hard and
can be very expensive to get the right treatment over
here in New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Doctor Ben Sedley, thank you so much for your time
this morning. If you want more information, head to Open
Closed Door. That is the charity which is bringing the
Bergen four day OCD program to our shores. And it's
just great news to hear that there is a program
out there that is working and people who have been
in this field for a long time are so impressed
with it, so hopefully that will help some New Zealanders.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Here for more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin,
listen live to news Talks there'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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