
Stop Organizing Your Life Around Fear
Secure Telehealth ERP for OCD and Anxiety in California
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Secure Telehealth ERP for OCD and Anxiety in California
Your mind holds you hostage with questions that have no answers. You're exhausted from trying to think your way to certainty that never comes.

Over time, your attention drifts away from the present moment.
You might feel less connected — to your work, your relationships, or the activities you used to enjoy — not because you don’t care, but because your mind is busy managing threat, uncertainty, or discomfort.
Struggles like these aren’t a personal failure or lack of strength. They’re patterns — ones that can be understood and changed with the right approach.
Effective therapy doesn’t require you to eliminate fear, control your thoughts, or achieve perfect certainty.
Instead, it helps you relate differently to discomfort, uncertainty, and anxiety — so they no longer run the show. Relief is possible.
You may have tried logic, self-help, or reassurance. Nothing stuck. That’s understandable.

Not Your Typical Talk Therapy
When patterns like these begin to take over, the question isn’t why you feel anxious — it’s how to respond differently when uncertainty and discomfort show up.
Whatif Therapy offers specialized Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) therapy for adults across California who are struggling with OCD and related anxiety patterns. ERP is the gold-standard, evidence-based treatment for OCD. Rather than trying to eliminate fear or achieve certainty, treatment focuses on gradually facing feared situations while reducing compulsions and avoidance — allowing anxiety to lose its grip over time and creating meaningful, lasting change.
*This practice is a good fit if you’re open to active, skills-based work and willing to practice responding differently to discomfort. It may not be the right fit if you’re looking for reassurance-based or purely supportive therapy.*
ERP helps you learn how to respond differently to intrusive thoughts rather than trying to eliminate them. In treatment, we gradually and intentionally face the thoughts, images, urges, or situations that trigger anxiety, while reducing compulsions such as reassurance-seeking, checking, mental review, or avoidance. Over time, your nervous system learns that anxiety can rise and fall on its own — without rituals — and that you don’t need certainty to move forward. ERP is structured, collaborative, and tailored to your specific OCD themes and patterns.
Unsure if OCD? Take a brief educational screener
ERP for social anxiety focuses on helping you engage in social situations without relying on safety behaviors like over-preparing, rehearsing, avoiding eye contact, or monitoring how you’re perceived. Together, we practice entering feared social scenarios and allowing uncertainty about judgment, embarrassment, or rejection — without trying to control the outcome. As avoidance decreases, confidence grows naturally through experience, not reassurance.
ERP for panic and agoraphobia focuses on breaking the fear-panic-avoidance cycle. Treatment may involve intentionally experiencing feared physical sensations (like increased heart rate or dizziness) and gradually re-entering avoided places or situations — without using escape or safety behaviors. As panic becomes less threatening, avoidance decreases, and your world begins to open back up.
Learn more about ERP for Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia
ERP for illness anxiety helps you face health-related fears without compulsive checking, reassurance seeking, or excessive research. This may include sitting with physical sensations, reading health-related information, or postponing checking behaviors — while resisting the urge to “figure it out.” The goal isn’t to convince you that you’re healthy, but to help you tolerate uncertainty and respond to health anxiety in a more flexible, sustainable way.
ERP for GAD targets chronic worry, mental reassurance, and the urge to “solve” uncertainty. Instead of engaging with worry as a problem to fix, we practice allowing uncertainty while reducing compulsive mental behaviors like rumination, planning, and seeking certainty. Treatment helps you shift from living inside constant “what ifs” to engaging more fully in the present — even when answers aren’t available.
ERP for specific phobias involves gradual, planned exposure to feared objects or situations — without avoidance or escape. This may include images, videos, imagined exposure, or real-world experiences, all paced to your readiness. As exposure increases, fear loses its grip, and confidence is built through direct experience rather than avoidance.

I’m a therapist who specializes in OCD- and anxiety-related patterns and provides structured, hands-on ERP-informed therapy. I work actively and collaboratively to help you reduce unhelpful responses, face uncertainty, and make meaningful, lasting progress. Many people I work with experience thoughts or images that feel disturbing, confusing, or difficult to say out loud. I’ve worked across different treatment settings and approach this kind of material with steadiness and professionalism. Together, we’ll make sense of what’s happening and move forward with a clear plan and consistent guidance.
Licensed in California and available to clients in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Orange County, San Diego, San Francisco, and surrounding areas.
Whatif Therapy
based in Lakewood, CA
Whatif Therapy | Matthew Baker, LCSW (CA #121926)
ERP therapy for OCD and anxiety-related disorders.
Serving clients across California via secure telehealth.
Updated January 2026
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