Specialty outpatient care for pediatric anxiety & OCD (ages 7-22)

We engage patients and families in a fully virtual care journey that research has shown to be as effective as in-person treatment for youth with anxiety and OCD. The treatment plan is personalized to fit into the patient’s life, rather than the other way around. While we offer regularly scheduled therapy sessions, we also have real-time coaching and check-ins via phone and text to help engage kids in treatment and increase accountability, as well as opportunities to be supported by the therapist/coach virtually while doing exposure exercises out in the community (using portable devices and headphones).

Exposure therapy is a key component of CBT that involves purposely confronting the situations, objects, and places that trigger your anxiety and/or OCD symptoms to break the cycle of fear and avoidance.

Your InStride therapist will work with you to develop a roadmap for exposure practice. Your therapist and exposure coach will then support you in practicing your exposures out in the real world—at school, in stores, in restaurants, in your home, and in your neighborhood—wherever you need it most. We do this at a pace that feels right for you, and we’ll never ask you to do something that is unsafe or dangerous or that we, as the care team, wouldn’t do ourselves.

Yes! Our only location requirement is that the child must be physically located in a state we serve while treatment is going on.

Yes, your dedicated psychiatrist can prescribe medications. However, since we meet virtually, we cannot prescribe controlled substances, such as stimulants and benzodiazepines.

Our InStride care teams are not only experts in treating anxiety and OCD, but also in engaging young people and finding ways to make care meaningful to them. We’ve successfully treated many youth who were initially hesitant about virtual therapy, and the virtual element has made care much more accessible to them. 

Care at InStride is so much more than just sitting at a computer for a traditional telehealth appointment. Our therapists design individualized exposure plans that are tailored to specific needs with exposures that may take place at home, in the community (e.g., in school, stores, restaurants, etc.), and in the neighborhood.  Our coaches work hard to ensure that sessions are fun and active and incorporate the young person’s interests – this could look like having a mini dance party, playing a game, or going on a scavenger hunt as rewards for doing exposures and practicing skills. We want the young person to be fully engaged in treatment so that they can get back to doing what matters most to them.

Our care team is well versed in managing the avoidance that comes with anxiety, so rest assured that we know how to work with kids, teens, and young adults who don’t want to be onscreen.  In fact, there are times when we frame getting and staying on screen during a session as an exposure in and of itself.

Parents and/or caregivers are an integral part of the treatment process. At a minimum, we ask that parents participate in the initial clinical and medication evaluations as well as intermittent treatment review sessions. We also highly encourage you to participate in parent/caregiver groups and additional family and/or psychiatry sessions, as needed. Additional family support can be provided and coordinated by the care team. For young adults, we work with the individual and family to determine the most appropriate plan of action, based on their unique needs and circumstances.