Learn to Thrive Blog

Welcome to the New England Center for OCD & Anxiety (NECOA) blog! Explore expert tips, coping strategies, and educational articles about OCD and anxiety, including symptoms, treatment approaches, and practical ways to manage daily challenges. You’ll also find thoughtful insights, evidence-based resources, and real-world perspectives to support individuals, families, and clinicians alike.

At NECOA, we believe that accessible, compassionate, and specialized care can make a meaningful difference – and we’re committed to providing content that empowers our community to better understand, manage, and move forward with confidence.

Perinatal OCD: What It Really Looks Like — and Why It So Often Goes Unrecognized

I had my first child, my daughter, Josie, in graduate school. Like most first-time mothers, I was overwhelmed, terrified, full of love and joy for my little one, and so very scared I would get it all wrong. [...]

If OCD Wrote an April Fools Joke

Here’s a weird idea. What if we tried to think about OCD as a jokester? [...]

When Performance Anxiety Shows Up Again: What ERP and ACT Can Teach Us

Performance anxiety is sneaky. It can feel like an old friend and a new foe all at once. One moment, you think you’ve “gotten a grip” on it; the next, it resurfaces in a completely new arena — like stepping back into competitive pool as an adult [..]

Holiday Mindfulness

The holiday season can be meaningful, joyful, overwhelming, and stressful – often all at once. [...]

5 Ways to Support Your Anxious Child During Back-to-School Season

It’s that time of year again, when the weather has tilted towards cooler, and there’s a hint of Fall in the air. Pumpkin spice is back. So are the back-to-school shopping crowds. And school team tryouts [...]

Being a Main Character: Storytelling in Therapy

by Murron O'Neill

[...] it is easy to immerse ourselves in a world seemingly so different from our own. I think that, because of this, we humans sometimes forget that we ourselves are nothing but characters in our own stories. [...]

Letting Go of Your Fears with Elyse

Being an exposure therapist, I help clients confront their fears all day long–but what about my own fears? [...]

by Dr. Elyse Stewart

A Tale As Old As Time: Avoidance (Joe Vs. I Stink)

Imagine you have somebody walking around with the idea that they aren’t good at anything. Let’s call him Joe. I’m not saying that Joe has the thought “I stink,” I’m saying “I stink” is the lens through which he views the world [...]

by Dr. Jason Krompinger

Fall’s Opportunities

[...] Fall can be a time of reflection, when the light takes a golden slant in the afternoons, and we take stock before winter’s quiet. For some of us, it can also be a time for renewal - when we let go of things we struggle with, and embrace new adventures [...]

by Dr. Lisa Coyne

Understanding Your Avoidance

Ever feel like you get stuck avoiding things that might cause you anxiety, or stress, or discomfort? Us too. [...]

by Matthew Boone, Jennifer Gregg, & Lisa Coyne

Stuff That's Loud: How to
Un-spiral When OCD Gets Noisy.

Ever feel spiraled into the noise of anxious thoughts or worries? If you are an adolescent struggling with OCD, this might just describe your daily life. It's hard not to try to get rid of those anxious thoughts by doing compulsions, or rituals [...]

by Dr Lisa Coyne

You Do, You Get

by Dr. Lisa Coyne

I don't know about you, but sometimes I struggle to understand why people do the things they do. But then I remember that there's a simple principle that describes how it all works. [...]

Dear Parents, It's OK to Call Bulls&!t

You’ve probably seen a ton of online posts with “to do lists” for parents: how-to lists for how to parent during a pandemic. They are popping up like mushrooms! You are supposed to manage your children, provide structure, give them an enriching education, limit screen time, [...]

Thriving in Interesting Times

We are living in interesting times. There is so much happening around us - in the world, in our relationships, on our screens, in our minds. It can be exhausting, agitating… enervating and aggravating at the same time. [...]

Learning to Thrive

The winter solstice marks the longest dark of the year, when the earth tilts away from the sun. Some of us rise before dawn and get home after dark - I am one of those. [...]

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