
OUR DIRECTON
I have big dreams for Taming Olivia. Running parallel to the website is a wide range of public speaking, training events and advocating for OCD, perinatal OCD, depression, generalised anxiety and panic disorder. I'd like to get resources into as many public health and educational spaces as possible. We're getting there! I work alongside a range of awesome charities and organisations and was lucky enough to be shortlisted for the NHS Who Cares Wins Award in the Mental Health Hero category.
Heres a list of some of the things I'm up to up the minute and some of our plans for the
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At the minute I'm also Executive Producer on a short film called Waving. It's about the realities of dealing with distressing intrusive thoughts and it stars Ralph Ineson and Krissi Bohn. This is an unpaid passion project.
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Co-developing an OCD prevention app with the University of Bath.
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Creating Taming Olivia resources for children and schools to use to help with self-esteem, self-compassion and self-love.
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Supporting the 'For Want of A Nail' team with an exciting new development of their ten part series about OCD.
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Volunteering for a range of UK and international OCD charities including the wonderful
OCD Action, Maternal OCD and the International OCD Foundation
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Speaking at conferences and writing about OCD for international organisations, charities
and the media.
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Continuing to share our story with international press.
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If you would like to help us continue our work, please use the support button dotted about
on the site.
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Catherine x
ABOUT US
OUR STORY
After living with distressing intrusive thoughts since early childhood, I finally got diagnosed with OCD at 32. It came with a lot of other, very painful, symptoms associated with generalised anxiety, panic disorder and depression. I found that
the best way to traverse recovery and to develop self compassion and
kindness (even if my mind was telling my I didn't deserve it) was through
the use of Olivia - a cheeky and somewhat sassy character that helped
me separate myself from my condition and practice those positive skills.
I set up a blog about Olivia for my own personal use and hoped it
would help one or two others. Fast forward five years and it's grown
beyond my wildest dreams. Taming Olivia is used as a concept around
the world. We've appeared in international press, in classrooms, therapists
offices and conference centers globally, and, importantly, in discussions
around dinner tables.
