Purpose 🎯

Help clients identify how reassurance seeking can temporarily reduce distress while creating new doubt and repeated questioning.

Let’s Talk About It 🗣️

Map the loop:

Question → Reassurance → Temporary Relief → New Doubt → More Questions

Practice replacing certainty-giving responses with uncertainty-tolerant language, such as:

• “Maybe, maybe not.”
• “I can handle not knowing right now.”
• “I do not need to solve this question in this moment.”

Use these statements as treatment tools, not as scripted reassurance about the feared outcome.

Ask:

• What question does OCD keep asking?
• What kind of reassurance does OCD want?
• How long does the relief usually last?

If the Conversation Gets Stuck 💡

• Who or what does OCD ask you to check with?
• What happens after you get reassurance?
• Does the reassurance close the loop, or restart it?

Telehealth / Whiteboard Version ⚖️

Draw the reassurance loop as a cycle. Add examples of reassurance questions and practice writing treatment-consistent alternatives.

Why This Works 🌱

This activity helps clients see reassurance seeking as part of the OCD cycle and practice tolerating uncertainty without feeding the loop.

Clinical Pearl 🧠

Responding differently to reassurance seeking should include empathy. The goal is not harshness; the goal is reducing certainty-giving that maintains OCD.

Documentation Language 📝

Therapist utilized a reassurance loop mapping intervention to help client identify reassurance-seeking patterns, temporary relief cycles, renewed doubt, and uncertainty-tolerant responses.

Clinical Focus: Reassurance Seeking, Uncertainty Tolerance, Response Prevention