PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

Pediatric OCD: Recognition, Assessment, And Family- Based Treatment

This training provides a developmentally grounded framework for identifying pediatric OCD and understanding family- based tx approaches.
  • 3 hr 
3 Continuing Education Credits Available*
  • On-demand
Complete the training at your own pace. CE credits are awarded following successful completion of all course requirements.

$90

Single course enrollment

3 hr 

Approximate course duration

3 CEs

Available to eligible NYS professionals

On-demand

Complete at your own pace

$90

Single course enrollment
COURSE OVERVIEW

A developmentally informed approach to treating pediatric OCD and supporting collaboration with families and other providers.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder affects approximately 1-3% of children and adolescents, yet it remains among the most frequently missed and most frequently mistreated conditions in pediatric mental health.

Childhood OCD is routinely misread as generalized anxiety, ADHD, perfectionism, or oppositional behavior, and children referred for “anxiety” commonly receive years of treatment that never targets the mechanism maintaining their symptoms.

This training provides clinicians with a developmentally grounded framework for identifying pediatric OCD, distinguishing it from its most common differentials, and delivering treatment that works. Particular emphasis is placed on the feature that most distinguishes pediatric OCD from its adult form: in children, the compulsion very often lives in the relationship between parents and their children.

Reassurance-seeking and family accommodation are some of the most common maintaining factors that childhood OCD. The training therefore devotes substantial time to addressing how caregivers can be included in Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP) and SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) treatments.

3 CEs available to NYS LMHCs, LMFTs, LCSWs, LMSWs, LCATs, NYS Licensed Psychologists and NYS Licensed Psychoanalysts provided by Hudson Valley Professional Development, LLC upon successful completion of training.

What You'll Explore

A focused look at the clinical issues related to pediatric OCD.

Clinical Assessment

Strengthen clinical assessment and differential diagnosis of pediatric OCD, including the role of multi-informant evaluation.

Clinical Presentation

Recognize how pediatric OCD can present differently across developmental stages.

Family Accommodation Patterns

Understand how reassurance-seeking and family accommodation can unintentionally maintain OCD symptoms.

Evidence-Based Family Tx

Explore practical ways to engage parents as active partners in evidence-based OCD treatment.

ERP/SPACE 

Learn how ERP and SPACE approaches address the child’s symptoms while shifting patterns of family interaction.

Engaging Supportive Others 

Developmentally sensitive approach to treating pediatric OCD and supporting collaboration with families and other providers.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this training, you will
be able to:

01

Recognize the early signs of pediatric OCD across developmental stages anddistinguish them from normative childhood rituals.

02

Conduct a developmentally appropriate pediatric OCD assessment, including multi-informant interviewing and CY-BOCS administration and interpretation.

03

Differentiate pediatric OCD from generalized anxiety disorder, ADHD, autism, tic disorders, ARFID, separation anxiety, and oppositional defiant disorder.

04

Identify family accommodation and reassurance-seeking cycles and explain the mechanisms by which they maintain and worsen childhood OCD.

05

Describe the core components of both ERP and SPACE programs and explain how changes in parental behavior can help reduce child anxiety.

06

Apply Exposure and Response Prevention with children, including externalizing OCD, building a developmentally appropriate hierarchy, and coaching the parent role during exposures.

How It Works

Advance your clinical knowledge in
three steps.

step 1

Watch

Complete the on-demand professional training presented by Barb Shepard, LMHC.

step 2

Demonstrate your understanding

Complete the online test following the training.

step 3

Complete your evaluation

Submit the course evaluation to fulfil the training requirements.

Successful completion of all three components is required for eligible participants seeking CE credit.

Instructor

Barb Shepard, LMHC

Licensed Mental Health Counselor | ERP Practitioner | PANS/PANDAS Clinical Educator

Barb Shepard is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor who has worked in the helping profession since 2010, providing support to children, adolescents, adults, and families.

She specializes in Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) Therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, anxiety, and related disorders, with a commitment to evidence-based, compassionate care. Her professional experience spans residential treatment facilities, foster care, outpatient substance abuse programs, special education settings within schools, and private practice. Her advanced clinical training in pediatric OCD includes completion of the Behavior Therapy Training Institute (BTTI) intensive, hosted by the International OCD Foundation. She also brings advanced training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), completed through the Linehan Behavioral Tech Institute at Columbia University.


A specialized focus on PANS/PANDAS

Barb has a specialized professional interest in PANS/PANDAS, a subset of pediatric OCD. She is regarded as a local expert in Central New York, providing ERP treatment for PANS/PANDAS-related OCD and collaborating closely with physicians, schools, and community professionals. In addition to clinical services, she offers consultation on appropriate mental health assessment, interdisciplinary diagnosis, and mental health treatment for this complex condition.

In October 2025, Barb organized Syracuse, New York’s first-ever World PANS/PANDAS Awareness Day event. Children, families, pediatric clinicians, and educators gathered downtown as the National Grid Building lit green for PANS—marking a meaningful moment of advocacy, connection, and community education.

Barb remains dedicated to closing the gap between research and clinical practice and is passionate about expanding training, awareness, and access to effective care for this underserved population.
Continuing Education

Earn 3 Continuing Education Credits.

CE credits are provided by Hudson Valley Professional Development, LLC following successful completion of the training requirements.

3 CEs are available to eligible:

  • NYS Licensed Mental Health Counselors
  • NYS Licensed Master Social Workers
  • NYS Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists
  • NYS Licensed Creative Arts Therapists
  • NYS Licensed Clinical Social Workers
  • NYS Licensed Psychologists
  • NYS Licensed Psychoanalysts
Important Clinical Context

A developmentally sensitive approach to Pediatric OCD treatment.

Explore evidence-based strategies for helping children and families engaging in accommodation and reassurance seeking behaviors.
Professional Development

Build practical skills for delivering developmentally appropriate, family-based OCD treatment that addresses both the child and the systems surrounding them.

3 hr  •  On-demand  • 3 CEs available*
Immediate online access after enrollment.
Created with