Helen Blair Simpson

Overview

Helen Blair Simpson is the OCD researcher and clinician cited in the Huberman Lab OCD Essentials episode for a structured exposure and ritual-prevention treatment protocol.

Current Profile

In Essentials: The Science & Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Andrew Huberman names Simpson as a leading OCD researcher and clinician at Columbia University School of Medicine. Her role in the source is methodological: she anchors the episode’s description of Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD as planned, in-person, progressive exposure to actual triggers followed by prevention of the usual ritual or compulsion. The source describes two planning sessions followed by roughly 15 exposure sessions, often twice weekly or more, over several weeks and sometimes up to 10 or 12 weeks.

Key Characteristics

• Serves as the source’s named expert for clinician-guided OCD exposure and ritual-prevention treatment.
• Connects OCD treatment to actual triggers rather than only abstract discussion of fear.
• Uses planning sessions before exposure work, making symptom mapping and fear identification part of treatment structure.
• Emphasizes ritual prevention after exposure so the patient learns that anxiety can be tolerated without the compulsion.
• Represents a professional-care boundary because the episode warns against attempting exposure treatment casually or alone.

Evidence

• Expert role - Essentials: The Science & Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) identifies Simpson as a leading OCD researcher and clinician.
• Protocol structure - Essentials: The Science & Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) describes her approach as using planning sessions, in-person exposures, and ritual prevention.
• Treatment boundary - Essentials: The Science & Treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) says exposure-based CBT should be done by trained licensed psychologists or psychiatrists rather than casually.

Qualifications

This page reflects only Simpson’s role as cited in one podcast source note. It is not a full biography, bibliography, institutional profile, or clinical protocol.

What Changed

• Created Simpson’s entity page as the named clinical-research anchor for the OCD exposure and ritual-prevention branch.

Relationships

• Huberman Lab - show context where Simpson’s work is cited.
• Andrew Huberman - host who summarizes Simpson’s OCD treatment protocol.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - condition for which her protocol is discussed.
• Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD - treatment branch grounded by the source’s description of her work.
• Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale - assessment frame adjacent to the planning and symptom-mapping step.
• Psychiatric Medication Supervision Boundary - professional-care boundary reinforced by the episode’s treatment caution.