When we were kids, we would often play a game where we tried not to step on the cracks in the sidewalk. Necks crooked down, eyes laser focused on the ground, we hopped around as we sang- and some of us believed-: “Step on the crack, break your mama’s back!” 

And then there were the 10-step bedtime routines: “I won’t go to bed unless you read me a bedtime story, tuck in every one of my stuffed animals, give me three kisses on the cheek. Check the closet for the boogy man. So on and so forth.”

But where is the line between play and compulsion? Between routine and obsession?

On today’s episode, we are privileged to welcome esteemed clinician Dr. Rebecca Berry to talk all about obsessive compulsive disorder in childhood, its diagnosis, its treatments, and how it compares to typical childhood behaviors.

More on Dr. Rebecca Berry:
Rebecca Rialon Berry, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in the evaluation and treatment of anxiety disorders , Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and related conditions. She has intensive training and certification in cognitive-behavior therapy, exposure and response prevention, habit reversal training, and behavioral parent training.

Dr. Berry currently has a specialty private practice in midtown Manhattan and Westchester, NY, where she works extensively with children, adolescents, and adults. She is an affiliate Clinical Associate Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. During her time at NYU Langone Health, Dr. Berry coordinated the Intensive Anxiety and OCD treatment program, and co-founded and directed the Tics, Tourette’s Disorder, and Trichotillomania Program. Before joining the faculty at NYU, Dr. Berry served as a Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, where she helped establish the Early Life Stress and Pediatric Anxiety and OCD Program.  

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