Minnesota OCD Conference
About this Event
Join us for a day of learning, connection, and hope at the Minnesota OCD Conference. Whether you're living with OCD, supporting a loved one, or working as a mental health professional, this conference offers an opportunity to learn from experts, connect with others, and leave with practical tools for recovery and treatment.
The Minnesota OCD Conference is a one-day event bringing together clinicians, researchers, advocates, individuals with lived experience, and community organizations from across Minnesota and beyond. With educational sessions, interactive experiences, and opportunities to connect, there's something for everyone.
What to Expect
Check-In & Welcome (8:30–9:30 AM)
- Check in and receive your conference tote bag, name badge, and program.
- Enjoy coffee while exploring exhibitor booths and community resources.
- Meet fellow attendees before the day's events begin.
Keynote & Breakout Sessions
- Hear from an inspiring keynote speaker. (Speaker announcement coming soon!)
- Choose from a variety of breakout sessions designed for individuals with OCD, loved ones and supporters, and mental health professionals.
- Learn practical, evidence-based strategies from experienced clinicians, researchers, and advocates.
Lunch & Connection
- Connect with other attendees during lunch.
- Join optional networking meetups or affinity groups.
- Visit exhibitors and explore additional resources throughout the day.
Lived Experience & Ask the Experts
- Hear directly from individuals who have navigated OCD and recovery.
- Ask questions during our live expert panel featuring OCD specialists.
Interactive Experiences
The conference is more than presentations. Throughout the day, you'll have opportunities to:
- Explore exhibitor booths and community resources.
- Participate in interactive activities.
- Create something in our art area.
- Relax in our Quiet Room if you need a sensory or emotional break.
- Meet others who understand what you're going through.
Silent Auction
Browse and bid on items donated by local businesses and community partners throughout the day. Proceeds benefit the OCDMN Access Fund, helping individuals and families access evidence-based OCD treatment regardless of financial barriers.
Leave Feeling Inspired
Whether you're attending to better understand OCD, gain clinical knowledge, or connect with others who "get it," you'll leave with practical tools, valuable resources, meaningful connections, and renewed hope.
Agenda
🕑: 08:30 AM - 09:30 AM
Check-In, Welcome Mingle & Resource Fair
🕑: 09:30 AM - 09:45 AM
Opening Remarks
Info: Kickoff & Conference Overview
🕑: 09:45 AM - 10:15 AM
Keynote Address
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Breakout Block 1
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Understanding the OCD Brain: Medications, TMS & Other Treatment Options
Host: Alik Widge, MD, PhD
Info: This session will provide an accessible overview of evidence-based treatment for OCD, including how ERP, medications, TMS, and other emerging treatment approaches fit into care. Designed for individuals with OCD, family members, clinicians, and community members, the presentation will help attendees better understand the science behind OCD, what effective treatment looks like, and how different treatment options can work together to support recovery.
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Beyond Intrusive Thoughts: Self-Compassion and Reclaiming Your Identity
Host: Alison Dotson
Info: When you've spent years battling intrusive thoughts and compulsions, it can be hard to remember who you are without OCD. This presentation explores how self-compassion can quiet self-criticism, strengthen resilience, and help you reconnect with the person OCD has tried to overshadow. Through practical tools and real-life examples, you'll learn how to move beyond survival and begin reclaiming your identity.
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Breaking the Family OCD Cycle: Using SPACE to Reduce Accommodation and Support
Host: Heidi Lohman, M.Ed, LPC
Info: Designed for parents and caregivers of children and teens with OCD, this presentation explores how well-intentioned responses can unintentionally keep OCD in control. You'll learn the principles of Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE), an evidence-based approach that helps families reduce accommodation while maintaining empathy and connection. Attendees will leave with practical strategies to support their child's recovery without reinforcing OCD.
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
The Overlap Between OCD and Disordered Eating
Host: Allie Kessel, LCSW
Info: OCD and disordered eating often coexist, yet the relationship between them can be complex and easily overlooked. This presentation explores how obsessive-compulsive symptoms and disordered eating behaviors can interact, overlap, and reinforce one another, including when eating-related rituals and compulsions serve to fulfill or mask deeper unmet needs. Attendees will gain a better understanding of how to recognize these patterns, differentiate OCD from eating disorder symptoms, and approach treatment with greater confidence while knowing when specialized eating disorder care is indicated.
🕑: 11:30 AM - 12:45 PM
Lunch & Networking
🕑: 12:45 PM - 01:45 PM
Breakout Block 2
🕑: 12:45 PM - 01:45 PM
Scary Thoughts, Loving Parents: Understanding & Supporting Perinatal OCD
Host: Elizabeth Kittleson, LMFT PMHC
Info: New parenthood can bring unexpected, scary thoughts — and for some, those thoughts don't go away. New parenthood itself is a risk factor for receiving a 1st time OCD diagnosis or an exacerbation of prior OCD symptoms. This session offers a compassionate look at perinatal
OCD: what it looks like, how it differs from everyday new-parent worry, and how it can affect the whole family. Whether you're navigating these thoughts yourself, supporting someone who is or thinking about having a baby, you'll leave with practical ways to see it, respond appropriately, and know when and how to get support.
🕑: 12:45 PM - 01:45 PM
Breaking the Cycle of Rumination & What-If Thinking
Host: Jenny Matthews, LMFT
Info: Rumination often feels like problem-solving, but for people with OCD and anxiety, it can become a mental compulsion that fuels fear, doubt, and uncertainty. This presentation explores how repetitive "what-if" thinking keeps people stuck and why trying to think your way to certainty often backfires. Attendees will learn to recognize rumination patterns, identify common mental traps, and use practical strategies—including non-engagement responses, mindfulness, and grounding techniques—to step out of unhelpful thinking loops and reconnect with the present moment. Designed for individuals with OCD and anxiety, loved ones, clinicians, and community members, this session offers practical tools for responding differently to rumination and uncertainty.
🕑: 12:45 PM - 01:45 PM
Co-Occurring OCD and PTSD: Considerations in Treatment
Host: Haley Petersen, MA
🕑: 12:45 PM - 01:45 PM
Scrupulosity 101: Treating Religious and Moral OCD with Confidence
Host: Johanna Wood, PHD, LP
Info: Scrupulosity is the term for OCD symptoms focused on religion and morality. It's a common symptom theme in OCD, affecting up to 33% of OCD clients. While it's true that 'the content doesn't matter' in OCD treatment, there are unique ethical and clinical challenges associated with this theme that are important for the clinician to understand. Scrupulosity symptoms are intertwined with clients' values and religious beliefs and insight is often poor, making it difficult to distinguish between anxiety-driven and values-driven behavior. In this talk, learn the basics of how to differentiate between scrupulosity and normal religious practice, how to navigate ethical and culturally competent exposures, and how to use faith as a motivator in ERP treatment. This talk will help you help your clients redefine their values and put their faith in faith again.
🕑: 01:45 PM - 02:00 PM
Break
🕑: 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Breakout Block 3
🕑: 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Providing Inclusive OCD Care: The Role of Race, LGBTQ+ Identity, and Trauma
Host: Vaughn A. Paradise, MS, LPCC
Info: This interactive presentation is an exploration of the intersection of race, queer identities, institutional traumas and how these interact within what we commonly refer to as OCD. Awareness of how BIPOC and queer experiences may impact diagnosis, treatment, and psycho pharmaceutical interventions is extremely important, particularly in rising marginalization of these communities. We will explore these dynamics through exposure, narrative, and sex therapy lens alongside audience activity and discussion.
🕑: 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
From Rigidity to Flexibility: RO-DBT Concepts for OCD Treatment
Host: Marie Monson, MA, LPCC
Info: Many individuals with OCD struggle not only with anxiety and compulsions, but also with overcontrol, perfectionism, emotional inhibition, and difficulty adapting to uncertainty. This presentation introduces key concepts from Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO-DBT) and explores how increasing openness, flexibility, and social connectedness can complement traditional OCD treatment. Attendees will gain practical strategies for helping individuals move beyond rigid coping patterns and build more meaningful, values-driven lives.
🕑: 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Overcoming Barriers: Building Motivation and Staying Engaged in OCD Recovery
Host: Deanna Klein, LPCC
Info: Living with OCD often means wanting things to get better while also feeling uncertain, overwhelmed, or fearful about the very treatments that can help. Whether you're considering treatment for the first time, feeling stuck in your progress, or supporting a loved one through recovery, it's common to encounter roadblocks along the way. This presentation explores why these barriers arise and offers practical, evidence-informed strategies for building motivation, overcoming common obstacles, advocating for your treatment needs, and staying engaged in the recovery process. Participants will leave with actionable tools to help move from ambivalence to action and make the most of evidence-based OCD treatment.
🕑: 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Obsessions or Delusions? Untangling OCD and Psychosis
Host: Zach Pacha, LISW
🕑: 03:00 PM - 03:15 PM
Break
🕑: 03:15 PM - 04:15 PM
Hope in Recovery: Lived Experiences with OCD
Where is it happening?
USD 0.00 to USD 142.72
