Growing Minds Therapy UK: Understanding OCD in Children and Young People — and What Actually Helps
Most people have heard of OCD. Far fewer understand what it actually is. Popular culture has done a peculiar job of it — turning a serious, often debilitating condition into a personality quirk, a punchline, something people claim to have when they like their desk tidy or their playlist organised just so. For the families living with real OCD, that gap between the perception and the reality can feel isolating. Because the reality is exhausting, distressing, and — without the right support — very hard to shift on your own.
This piece is for those families. The ones where the rituals have taken hold. Where the reassurance-seeking has become constant. Where a young person's day is being eaten up by compulsions they know, on some level, don't make sense — but feel utterly unable to stop.
The good news, and it is genuinely good news, is that OCD responds well to treatment. The right kind of treatment, delivered by someone who understands it. And that's precisely what Growing Minds Therapy UK offers.
What OCD Actually Looks Like in Young People
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder characterised by two things: obsessions, which are unwanted, intrusive thoughts or images that cause significant distress, and compulsions, which are the behaviours or mental acts a person carries out to try to reduce that distress. The problem is that compulsions only ever provide temporary relief. The obsession comes back, often stronger. The compulsion has to be repeated, often for longer. The cycle tightens.
In children and young people, OCD can look very different from what people expect. It might show up as a need to check things repeatedly — doors, taps, homework. It might involve counting, ordering, or repeating actions a certain number of times. It might be driven by intrusive thoughts about harm — to themselves or to people they love — that horrify the young person having them and leave them convinced they must be a bad person. It might centre on contamination fears, or a need for symmetry, or a feeling that something terrible will happen if a ritual isn't completed correctly.
In many cases, the young person has been keeping it secret for months or even years before anyone outside the family knows. The shame and the exhaustion of maintaining that secrecy on top of everything else is its own significant burden.
The Practice Behind the Support
Growing Minds Therapy UK is run by Melissa, a BABCP-accredited Child and Young Person CBT Psychotherapist based at The Pavilion, Connolly Way, Graylingwell Park, Chichester, PO19 6WD. Melissa has over 20 years of experience supporting children and young people — across primary education, specialist wellbeing teaching, and NHS CAMHS — and OCD is one of her core clinical areas.
Working with OCD requires specific knowledge and a specific approach. It isn't the same as working with general anxiety, even though they share some features. Melissa understands that distinction. She knows how OCD operates, how it responds to different therapeutic moves, and — crucially — how it responds to the things that are meant to help but actually make it worse. Reassurance-giving is one of the most common examples. Parents offer reassurance because they love their child and want them to feel better. But for a young person with OCD, reassurance feeds the cycle rather than breaking it. Part of Melissa's work is helping families understand that — gently, without blame, with a clear explanation of why it happens and what to do instead.
She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Evidence-Based Psychological Treatment for Children and Young People from the University of Reading and a Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Clinical Practice and Supervision from the University of Southampton. She is registered with the BABCP, holds an enhanced DBS certificate, and works under regular clinical supervision. Families across West Sussex, Hampshire, and beyond access her support either face-to-face in Chichester or remotely online.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for OCD: How It Works
The recommended treatment for OCD in children and young people is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, specifically an approach within CBT called Exposure and Response Prevention, or ERP. The name sounds more alarming than the reality. What it means in practice is this: with careful, collaborative planning, a young person gradually faces the situations or thoughts that trigger their OCD — without carrying out the compulsion that usually follows.
That sounds simple. It isn't easy. But it is effective. And crucially, it's done at a pace the young person is involved in setting. Nobody is thrown into the deep end. Melissa works with the young person to build a shared understanding of how their OCD works — sometimes called a formulation — and from there, they plan the steps together. The young person learns that the anxiety spike that comes from resisting a compulsion will peak and then fall, without the catastrophe they feared. Over time, the trigger loses its power.
For younger children or where OCD is less severe, parent-guided approaches can also be used effectively. Melissa has specific training in working with parents as co-therapists — particularly useful when a child is too young or too anxious to engage directly in treatment themselves.
Alongside ERP, Melissa draws on mindfulness for children — helping young people observe their intrusive thoughts without being swept away by them — and acceptance and commitment therapy, which supports young people in choosing valued actions even when OCD is loud. These aren't alternatives to CBT. They're tools that sit alongside it, used where they add something meaningful.
Short Waits, Flexible Hours, and a Human Starting Point
One of the most practical things about Growing Minds Therapy UK is the waiting time — or rather, the lack of it. NHS CAMHS waiting lists in West Sussex and Hampshire can be long. Distressingly long, for a family watching their child's world shrink in the meantime. Private therapy with Melissa means a much shorter wait to get started.
The first step is a free 20-minute call. There's no fee involved and no commitment required. It's a chance to talk through what's been happening, ask questions, and get a sense of whether this is the right fit. Melissa is straightforward about the fact that the relationship between a young person and their therapist matters enormously — and that if it's not the right match, she'll say so and help you find an alternative.
From there, an initial assessment of up to 90 minutes covers current symptoms, history, and the shape of daily life. Melissa puts together a formulation and agrees next steps with the young person and their family. Sessions then run weekly, up to 55 minutes each. Most young people with OCD work through somewhere between eight and twenty sessions before moving into a consolidation period where they practise and embed what they've learned.
Melissa's hours are designed to fit around school and working life. She's available on Thursdays from 8am to 8pm, on Mondays and Tuesdays from 5pm to 8pm, and on Saturday mornings from 9am to 1pm. Sessions take place face-to-face at the Chichester practice or remotely — whichever works better for your family.
To get in touch, call +44 7913 129188. For a full picture of the practice, the approach, and the conditions Melissa works with, take a look at Growing Minds Therapy UK (growingmindstherapy.co.uk). If OCD has been running your child's life, it doesn't have to carry on doing so.