KD HOLMES, MS, LPC, EMDR CERTIFIED

Explore KD Holmes's articles on trauma, OCD, anxiety, relationships, and the connection between mind and body. This collection includes reflections on EMDR, Deep Brain Reorienting, boundaries, perfectionism, and the questions people bring into therapy.

Use the topic filter to find related articles, then open a post to read the full discussion. To learn about support at KDH Counseling in Lafayette, Louisiana, explore our therapists, trauma therapy, or psychiatric medication management.

ERP

7 min read

When Attraction Becomes a Question: Understanding Sexual Orientation OCD (SO-OCD)

KD HOLMES, LPC, EMDR CERTIFIED, BTTI TRAINED: Sep 12, 2026, 8:36:43 PM

There's a particular kind of vertigo that comes from doubting something you never used to question. You wake up next to the partner you love, and instead of feeling anchored, a thought slices through: What if I'm not who I think I am? You replay a glance, a passing thought, a stray physical sensation, searching it for evidence. This is the terrain...

image of collage of woman with images of love in her head and uncertainty

4 min read

When Love Feels Like a Question: Relationship OCD

KD HOLMES, LPC, EMDR CERTIFIED, BTTI TRAINED: Jul 21, 2025, 7:36:38 PM

There’s a kind of love that doesn’t bloom gently-it twists in your chest, tight and unrelenting. It’s not love’s absence that hurts, but the constant question of whether it’s real enough, right enough, deep enough. This is what Relationship OCD (ROCD) does: it turns love into a test you never feel like you’re passing.

5 min read

When Just Right OCD Feels Like Survival

KD HOLMES, LPC, EMDR CERTIFIED, BTTI TRAINED: Jul 21, 2025, 7:25:59 PM

Do you often think or feel something’s off? Not dangerous, not dirty-just... wrong. The book isn’t crooked, but it isn’t straight enough. The sentence you wrote is perfectly clear, but something in your chest says, fix it again. You’re not chasing cleanliness or control. You’re chasing relief from a feeling that lives somewhere between your ribs...

3 min read

When Clean Doesn’t Feel Clean: Contamination OCD

KD HOLMES, LPC, EMDR CERTIFIED, BTTI TRAINED: Jun 12, 2025, 8:20:57 AM

There’s a kind of fear that hides in the ordinary. A doorknob. A grocery cart. The memory of a word. Contamination OCD is not about being tidy-it’s about terror masquerading as hygiene. It’s about a nervous system that screams danger where others feel safe. And no amount of scrubbing seems to quiet the noise.

5 min read

When Certainty Becomes a Cage: Scrupulosity OCD

KD HOLMES, LPC, EMDR CERTIFIED, BTTI TRAINED: Jun 12, 2025, 8:07:45 AM

There’s a particular pain that comes not from sin itself, but from the fear of it. A weariness that settles into the bones, not from wrongdoing, but from the constant mental replay of whether one has done wrong. If you’re here, maybe you know that ache. Maybe you’ve spent hours replaying a thought, a prayer, a memory-looking for the invisible...

4 min read

Harm OCD: Why These Thoughts Don't Mean What You Fear They Do

KD HOLMES, LPC, EMDR CERTIFIED, BTTI TRAINED: Jun 5, 2025, 8:24:32 AM

Some fears arrive like thunderstorms-loud, visible, and unmistakable. Others creep in quietly, like fog-unwelcome, disorienting, and hard to explain. Harm OCD often belongs to the second kind. It whispers intrusive fears not about what has happened, but about what might. What if I snap? What if I hurt someone I love? What if I hit someone on the...

POCD image is a woman with kids in her mind

8 min read

The Fear No One Talks About: Understanding POCD Through ERP

KD HOLMES, LPC, EMDR CERTIFIED, BTTI TRAINED: May 31, 2025, 2:06:35 PM

There is a particular kind of fear that doesn’t just scare you-it makes you question who you are. It shows up out of nowhere: an unwanted image, a flash of a thought about a child, and then a wave of horror that your own mind could produce something like that. If you’re here, you may be dealing with intrusive sexual thoughts involving children...

Cycle of a goal, anxiety, compulsive over achieving, followed by relief

21 min read

Achievement Pressure: What’s So Wrong With Being an Overachiever?

KD HOLMES, LPC, EMDR CERTIFIED, BTTI TRAINED: Oct 29, 2023, 2:21:46 PM

Overachieving is a complex web of perfectionistic behaviors, personality traits, mental health challenges, personal history, and social influences. It doesn't always look like a problem - until it starts to cost you something.

picture of someone jumping over a two rocks which is a metaphor

6 min read

The Power of ERP Therapy: Overcoming OCD

KD HOLMES, LPC, EMDR CERTIFIED, BTTI TRAINED: Feb 2, 2023, 11:06:10 AM

Many clients ask me, “What exactly is ERP?” Exposure and Response Prevention Treatment, or ERP, may sound formal or technical, but at its core, it is a powerful behavioral framework designed to bring order to the chaos of living with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Imagine OCD as a relentless cycle of obsessions and compulsions, continuing...

7 min read

What are OCD Intrusive Thoughts?

KD HOLMES, LPC, EMDR CERTIFIED, BTTI TRAINED: Jul 25, 2022, 5:27:20 PM

Have you ever had a thought that pops into your head uninvited and unwelcome? These experiences can show up as disturbing images, unsettling phrases, or even visceral sensations that interrupt otherwise peaceful moments. What’s important to understand is that intrusive thoughts in OCD are not rooted in hidden desires or secret wishes to act on...

1 2 Next