Religiosity, Scrupulosity, and Obsessions: Clinical Conundrums in the Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

This webinar is presented by Dean McKay, PhD, ABPP 
Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2026 
Time: 4pm PT / 5pm MT / 6pm CT / 7pm ET 

Webinar length is approx 90 mins, ZOOM link will be sent in a registration confirmation email, and will be emailed directly to you a few days before the event.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common, debilitating, and heterogeneous psychiatric condition. Despite the increased public awareness of the disorder, there remains considerable controversy over the boundaries that separate disordered intrusive thoughts and behaviors from ordinary cultural and religious values and related actions. The lack of clear guidelines for professionals on how to understand these boundaries can lead to clinical case conceptualizations that pathologize religious and cultural practices, and can lead to harmful interventions. This webinar is intended to address the boundaries between religiosity, scrupulosity, and obsessions from the unique perspective of working with Jewish clients. The session will begin with coverage of the basic features of OCD, and the contemporary diagnostic, cognitive-behavioral and neuroscience controversies (Abramowitz et al., 2026; Abramovitch, Abramowitz, & McKay, in press; McKay, Abramovitch, & Abramowitz, in press). A discussion of the major treatment approaches will be described, and then move to ways this may be misapplied when religious and cultural facets are poorly understood, a common problem for many Jewish clients. The webinar will then cover distinctions in how the general public describes obsessions, and how this contributes to overpathologizing religious and cultural values. The presentation will include illustrations of several cases where the boundaries between values and behaviors demand cultural sensitivity, specifically Jewish religious practices, and how to address these properly in clinical care.

Objectives

Objective 1: Attendees will be able to identify the major subtypes of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Objective 2: Attendees will recognize the distinctions among religiosity, scrupulosity, and obsessions

Objective 3: Attendees will gain an understanding of culturally sensitive methods of addressing clinical presentations of OCD that are embedded in Jewish practices.

References:

Abramowitz, J.S., Abramovitch, A., McKay, D., & Draffin, A. (2026). Treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder in adults: State of the art and emerging approaches. British Medical Journal, 392, 083443.

Abramovitch, A., Abramowitz, J.S., & McKay, D. (in press). Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders: A critical review of the diagnostic class. Clinical Psychology: Science & Practice.

McKay, D., Abramovitch, A., & Abramowitz, J.S. (in press). Introduction to the special section: Issues in conceptualization and assessment of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. Clinical Psychology: Science & Practice.

Dean McKay, PhD, ABPP, is Professor, Department of Psychology, Fordham University, is Past President (2018) of the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology (SSCP), and Past-President (2013-2014) of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT). Dr. McKay is licensed in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and is board-certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) in both Cognitive-Behavioral and Clinical Psychology. He has edited or co-edited 29 books and published over 400 journal articles and book chapters. Dr. McKay is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. His research has been primarily on obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, anxiety disorders, the role of disgust in psychopathology, and professional issues in the delivery of evidence-based interventions. He has most recently been focused on addressing antisemitism in medical and mental healthcare systems, and serves on the APA-appointed Collaborative of Jewish Psychologists.