ReImagine Therapy

ReImagine Therapy I'm Jessics Hayes and my company is ReImagine Therapy, where I provide Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Free 15 minute phone consultation before any assessment appointment to make sure I can help with what you're looking for support with.

19/03/2026

Have you heard of diagust-based contamination OCD?

I get clients with contamination OCD who are really frustrated and even ashamed of not understanding WHY they feel so unable to challenge their compulsions.

Contamination OCD that is based on disgust focuses on the idea of feeling permanently contaminated in some way.

This may be physically contaminated but can also be about being mentally contaminated. It can be themselves being contaminated, or not feeling safe in their space that may feel this way.

To work with this form of OCD, erp needs to be adapted so that it isn't just habituating to anxiety, but reducing sensitivity to disgust.

This can take longer than anxiety-based exposures because of the strong physiological reaction and often needs other techniques alongside the traditional erp.

Have you experienced this?

18/03/2026

It is 2026 Neurodiversity Celebration Week here in the UK and I think this is important to say.

We have so much research now showing how common neurodivergence is and how important it is to adapt therapy for neurodivergent brains, and yet we still have people working in ways that are not neuroaffirming or that are ignorant to how neurodivergence works.

There are still so many people undiagnosed but neurodivergent so we can't even claim to not work with neurodivergence as an excuse to not upskill in this area. Working in neurotypical ways and with neurotypical goals for neurodivergent people can cause harm and even trauma in therapy.

In both of my specialisms; OCD and perinatal/parental mental health, I encounter neurodivergence constantly because these populations in particular are known to overlap a lot with neurodivergence.

If you work as a therapist, especially in these areas, i urge you to ensure you are doing continuous extra learning around neurodivergence to ensure that you are always up to date with skills and recommendations. I would also urge you to ensure you are mindful of your language- make sure it is neuroaffirming and includes helping to reduce shame and increases focus on neurodivergent strengths as well as validating the struggles it can cause in a world made for neurotypical people.

I would also encourage everyone to try and understand how neurodiverse our world is and make an effort to see things through the lenses of different brains to their own.

And if you are someone looking for therapy who suspects or knows you may be neurodivergent, please make sure you choose someone who makes it clear in their language and ways of working that they understand your brain 🧠

What would you like others to understand about your brain?

17/03/2026

Why do some thoughts get stuck in OCD?

We know that the content of intrusive thoughts doesn't really change between people, but the intensity, frequency, and reaction can vary massively.

Here are 3 reasons why these thoughts might stick for you.

Also to add that we also know that OCD targets the things we love and that the theme can be related to past experiences, trauma etc., so this is why it can also help to have a full therapy assessment of your past to fully understand your OCD.

Do you notice these patterns in your thoughts that get stuck?

16/03/2026

The focus of this week is all about checking compulsions.

As always, we share some of the intrusive thoughts we have been having and then move on to discuss what checking is, what it can look like, and how to challenge it.

So listen to Just Checking episode 5, available from 7am tomorrow.



16/03/2026

I cringe any time I see another post like 'new cancer signs you didn't know to look for' because I know how much that can affect so many of my health anxiety clients.

I also see so many deadlines designed to shock people that I know can send my OCD clients down a spiral, and even see things like films and documentaries coming up that I know will feel too close to home for a specific client when I see it advertised.

It shows how often we think of our clients between sessions and how hyperaware we become of these things when we are OCD therapists in particular.

Have you ever seen your OCD or health anxiety theme cropping up on tv shows or social media stories, and had this have a really big impact?

I also get clients noticing how far they have come in therapy because these things no longer derail their days and it is incredible ❤️

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15/03/2026

Have you noticed this with your health anxiety or OCD?

OCD loves to divert anxiety to what it thinks it can control by checking. So things like job stress, house moves, scary world politics, waiting on test results etc can mean that your OCD or health anxiety gets more intense.

It is then normal to respond by doing more compulsions- more checking and avoidance.

What we want to do is to notice that it is becoming more intense and then focus on regulating emotions and noticing that the stress is coming from somewhere else.

We mention this on the Just Checking OCD podcast on Tuesday- an episode focusing on that urge to check and the OCD cycle.

What life stresses and events has your OCD or health anxiety diverted?


14/03/2026

The mental, physical and emotional load of OCD is really high for a lot of people.

Add anything else that is also draining, like parenting, neurodivergent masking, and chronic health issues- it is going to take longer to recover, because you need spoons to challenge OCD too.

Clients that come to me with these extra considerations feel really rewarding to work with because they often don't have positive experiences of therapy because of unrealistic goals and time frames from the therapist.

Have you got any helpful tips for recovering from OCD with chronic health conditions? Share them here for the next person who watches this.

13/03/2026

This is a type of exposure called an imaginal exposure.

We explain the reasoning behind this and the set up rules in episode 4 of Just Checking, but the basic idea is to write out the worst case scenario in first person with lots of detail, then read it repeatedly until the anxiety eventually comes down.

This one was for me imagining my parents got into a plane crash on their way home from holiday.

This can be used for many types of anxiety and OCD erp therapy for some themes too.

Is this something you have heard of before?


10/03/2026

A little look into how a therapist manages bad days.

For the actual day of disaster, I was pretty much focused on crisis management, lowering expectations, and problem-solving things. I also reached out and pulled in the support I could, because I don't need to be the one to do everything and I am trying to practice what I preach in showing that leaning on support is a strength, not a weakness.

I then focused on getting my kids into bed in a way that was as close to the norm as possible.

Then I focused on everything I needed to recuperate and chill out after riding out the day.

1) Convenience food to make sure I ate something before bedtimes started and also didn't need to cook when I had no energy. Also letting my kids eat it because I am picking my battles today and fed is best.

2) Pain management, because stressful days often also end up being high pain days, and these things also relax my body a lot too.

3) Complete comfort, my escape from reality with a sensory happy texture and weight to really regulate my nervous system.

4) Endorphins from doggy connections and appreciating all that my husband did to show how much of a team we are.

5) Unseen extras- i have a funny video i have saved on social media that I watch when I'm feeling a bit crappy because it never fails to make me laugh. I also voicenoted friends to rant before I started all of the chill out bits to get the frustration out before trying the calmer bits.

What are your go-to ways to manage disaster days and weeks?

09/03/2026

I am sure you have probably heard that you should never ruminate and never Google things.

I get a lot of clients worrying about this and judging themselves when they do.

But these things aren't inherently bad.

Does this difference make sense? What do you think is ok to do?

09/03/2026

If your OCD voice tries to convince you that the reason why your therapist isn't judging you for the horrible memory is because you haven't explained it well enough or because they don't believe it could be true, this is what I would like you to hear.

Real-event OCD, or false-memory OCD, are not talked about enough and a lot of the compulsions are mental and invisible, so people often suffer with it alone.

We discuss this subtype of OCD and explain different mental compulsions in episode 4 of Just Checking, that you can catch from tomorrow at 7am.

Do you have any questions about this type of OCD? Or about mental compulsions?


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WA13QA

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