In a city that moves by car, OCD often rides along: the route re-driven to check nothing happened, the exit avoided for years, the parking garage that costs twenty minutes of ritual before the workday starts.
MindView Therapy provides exposure and response prevention for adults (18+) across Indianapolis, by telehealth throughout Indiana.
What ERP actually is
OCD runs on a loop with three moving parts. A trigger raises a fear or a doubt. A ritual, a check, a re-drive, a silent count, a question asked again, buys relief. And the relief is the trap, because it teaches the brain the ritual was what kept everyone safe, so the next trigger arrives with more force.
Exposure and response prevention dismantles the loop at the ritual. You approach a trigger in a planned, agreed step, then practice not performing the response that usually follows. The anxiety rises and, given no ritual, falls on its own. Repeated, that experience is what retrains the alarm. ERP is the most studied form of CBT for OCD and a first-line treatment, a statement about the evidence base rather than a promise about any one person.
What a session involves
The first sessions build the map, not the pressure. You and your therapist rank your triggers into an exposure hierarchy from easiest to hardest, and define the response-prevention targets, the rituals you will practice leaving undone. Then the course works up the list one agreed step at a time, with practice between sessions carrying most of the change.
Progress is checked rather than assumed: once a month you review standardized measures together, and a plan that is not moving after a fair trial gets rebuilt.
What ERP treats
ERP is the dedicated protocol for OCD, including intrusive thoughts, checking, contamination fears, mental rituals and reassurance-seeking. The same graded structure treats phobias, panic, agoraphobia, social anxiety and avoidance-driven anxiety. You do not need a diagnosis to ask whether it fits. And the invisible rituals count as much as the visible ones: mental review, silent counting, reassurance sought in careful casual wording. A hierarchy that ignores them treats half the problem, so your therapist maps them deliberately at intake.
ERP in Indianapolis
Indianapolis is a driving city; just 1.4% of workers commute by public transportation (US Census Bureau, ACS 2020-2024 five-year estimates, table B08006). For OCD, that matters because the car becomes the exposure lab. The worry that you hit something and the loop back around the block to check is a checking compulsion on wheels: the re-drive buys relief, the relief certifies the check as necessary, and the loop tightens exactly the way a stove check does.
ERP treats it the same way too. Driving triggers get ranked into the hierarchy alongside everything else, the avoided exit, the ritualized departure, the mirror checked past usefulness, and the exposures happen on your real routes between sessions, planned and graded in the video hour, with safety and pacing agreed before anything is attempted. Sessions for Indianapolis run by telehealth, with our Indiana office in Carmel, IN. More at our Indianapolis page.
Insurance
ERP is billed under standard psychotherapy codes; there is no separate ERP rate. In Indiana we are in-network with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Cigna and Aetna. We check your plan before the first session and tell you what you will pay.
Questions people ask before booking
My OCD is mostly about driving. Can exposures be done in a car? Yes, planned and graded around your real routes and practiced between sessions. Safety and pacing get agreed with your therapist before any step is attempted, never improvised mid-drive.
Is there an office in Indianapolis? Sessions for Indianapolis are by telehealth, and our Indiana office is in Carmel, IN. Ask at booking about what works for your situation.
Will I be asked to do the hardest thing first? No. The hierarchy is ranked from easiest to hardest and you start at the easy end, at a pace agreed with your therapist.
Does insurance cover ERP? It is billed like any standard psychotherapy session. In Indiana we are in-network with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Cigna and Aetna, and benefits are checked before the first session.
Do I need a diagnosis to start? No. Assessment happens at intake, and your therapist recommends whether ERP or another approach fits.
If you are in crisis
We are not a crisis service. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, call or text 988, any hour, free and confidential. If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
How to get started
Read the full method on our exposure and response prevention page, then book at choose your therapist or call (646) 493-4007. We respond within one business day.