Our Programs

Weekly Outpatient Program
Intensive Outpatient Program

Individual Psychotherapy

Weekly or bi-weekly psychotherapy is recommended for individuals with mild, moderate, or overall less severe body dysmorphic disorder symptoms. If your BDD symptoms have not impaired your ability to maintain employment, consistently attend school, or live independently, it is likely that weekly outpatient therapy will be sufficient. For individuals with severe BDD, and whose functioning is significantly impaired by the symptoms, we highly recommend attending our BDD Intensive Outpatient Program.

Individual psychotherapy is an essential component of treatment. We use cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to address the body dysmorphic disorder symptoms that initially bring clients into treatment. From our extensive experience treating BDD, we also understand that cognitive behavioral therapy by itself is insufficient in maintaining long-term remission from body image symptoms: We therefore also implement other therapeutic techniques as needed such as Interpersonal Therapy, Family Systems Therapy, and trauma-based therapies in order to ensure the best prognosis. Individual psychotherapy also entails diagnosing and treating co-existing disorders. Length of treatment is frequently determined by the severity of the body dysmorphic disorder and other symptoms.

If you are seeking weekly outpatient therapy for body dysmorphic disorder symptoms, please call 310-741-2000 or email: info@BDDclinic.com

Psychiatric Medication

Many individuals with body dysmorphic disorder benefit from treatment with psychiatric medication, as this has been demonstrated in open-label and controlled research studies. Our treatment providers work closely with psychiatrists so as a treatment team we can provide the most comprehensive quality of care for our clients. The psychiatrists that we refer to are experienced in treating BDD as well as Related Disorders and Dual Diagnoses. We do not require clients to take medications, and although it may be recommended, the final decision is always made by the client.

Extended Evaluation and Intensive Outpatient Program

Our Body Dysmorphic Disorder Intensive Outpatient Program is unique in that it is one of the few existing intensive treatment programs that focuses exclusively on body dysmorphic disorder. We are recognized as regularly treating many of the most complex and severe cases of body dysmorphic disorder. Our success in treating complicated BDD clients is due not only to our many years of experience working with this population, but because of our belief that one treatment modality does not fit every client and that our treatment team must adapt to each patient’s presenting symptoms.

The BDD Intensive Outpatient Program is an 8 week program, Monday through Friday, for a total of 40 days of treatment, including:

Three (3) hours of individual treatment per day with staff BDD experts

A 3 to 1 staff-to-client ratio. Each client will work directly with three staff members, specifically two BDD-expert-therapists and one psychiatrist

Medication management sessions each week with a BDD Clinic psychiatrist

All staff clinicians are experts in the treatment of BDD and have extensive experience in treating body image disturbances and co-existing conditions

We highly recommend the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Intensive Outpatient Program for those individuals seeking treatment from out-of-state or abroad, and as a result would not be able to attend weekly therapy sessions. Also, individuals who live in Southern California and who have very severe body dysmorphic disorder symptoms may want to consider starting their recovery in our BDD Intensive Outpatient Program.

Comprehensive Diagnostic Assessment

In order to discern if an individual is an appropriate match for out BDD Intensive Outpatient Program, we require a 1 hour initial evaluation that can be done either in person or on the telephone, which ever is preferable for the client.