ABSTRACT
The involvement of family members and significant others in OCD is a common phenomenon. Family members may become involved in providing reassurance and assisting with the completion of compulsive rituals – sometimes to the extent that they may spend significantly more time ritualising than the young person. Alternatively, family members may refuse to participate in rituals and provide reassurance. With either response, the family system is likely to experience increased tension and conflict, as well as disruption to the goals and functioning of individual family members within their life cycle stages. In recognition of this, many clinicians advocate the explicit involvement of family members in therapy sessions where the individual case formulation suggests that the involvement of family members may be beneficial.
