Co-owner and Director of Clinical Training,
Clinical Psychologist

Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, 2015, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL

Dr. Kristin E Fitch is a licensed clinical psychologist. For her undergraduate studies, Dr. Fitch attended Boston University, where she earned her bachelor of arts degree in psychology and was introduced to research in OCD. While at BU, she also studied abroad in Grenoble, France and spent her weekends snowboarding in Vermont. After college, she had the opportunities to work as a research assistant for two years on a NIA R01 grant examining the genetic and environmental influences on cognitive and brain aging, and for two years on NIMH R01 grants differentiating hoarding disorder from OCD.

The New England native then made the big move to the South to complete her doctoral studies in clinical psychology at Florida State University. Her graduate research focused on hoarding disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder, including her master’s thesis on information processing deficits in nonclinical hoarding and dissertation research evaluating an exposure-based treatment for feelings of incompleteness (“not just right” experiences) that often motivate ritualistic behavior in OCD. She received her PhD in 2015 after completing her predoctoral internship at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System with a specialty in posttraumatic stress disorder. Throughout her clinical training, she gained a wide-breadth of experience in the assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders, trauma, obsessive compulsive and related disorders, mood disorders, and substance use disorders, primarily from a cognitive behavioral perspective.

Although she never truly acclimated to southern summers, Dr. Fitch could not say goodbye to New Orleans after her one-year internship. She was fortunate to find Dr. Suzanne Chabaud, director of the OCD Institute of Greater New Orleans, who gave her an opportunity to work with the population, about which Dr. Fitch has always been most passionate. During this time, Dr. Fitch also collaborated with other OCD specialists in the region, including Dr. Melissa Dufrene, in founding OCD Louisiana, an official affiliate of the International OCD Foundation. She serves as President on the nonprofit’s board, through which she strives to raise awareness about OCD and related disorders to reduce stigma and create a supportive community in Louisiana. She is also a founding member of the OCD and Related Disorders Special Interest Group of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science.

Dr. Fitch and Dr. Dufrene established Rise Center for OCD and Anxiety in 2021. They are hopeful that their treatment and training programs will help make treatment for OCD and related disorders more accessible to individuals across the state. In her clinical practice, Dr. Fitch specializes in the treatment of OCD, body dysmorphic disorder, hoarding disorder, and illness anxiety disorder using behavioral or exposure-based interventions integrated with mindfulness and acceptance-based approaches.

In her free time, Dr. Fitch enjoys spending time with her husband, dog Topanga, and cat Mirri. She loves exploring the city, listening to live music, and finding an opportunity to dress in costume or apply glitter. When the summers get too hot, she travels to the Connecticut shoreline to visit the kiddos in her family.

Associations

International OCD Foundation
Association for Contextual Behavioral Science