Dr. Christopher Keiper, PhD (He/Him)

Specialty Areas

• Obsessive-compulsive (OC/OCD) behaviors

• Panic/agoraphobia

• Anxiety-related problems, including social and health-related anxiety

• Body-focused repetitive behaviors (skin picking, hair pulling, nail biting)

• Body image

• Trauma

• LGBTQ+ concerns, including letters for surgery

• Insomnia and sleep

Licenses / Certifications

Licensed Psychologist / (OH) P.08352

Authority to Practice Telepsychology in PSYPACT States (APIT #18988)

Professional Affiliations

Association for Contextual Behavioral Science

International OCD Foundation

American Psychological Association

My Approach

I try to foster a friendly, down-to-earth, and warm therapeutic style while concentrating on relieving suffering where you most experience it. I work mainly from a ‘third-wave’ behavioral approach, emphasizing compassion for self and others while using therapeutic processes backed by research. I specialize in using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (known as “act”) and I practice exposure therapy, including Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD-related problems. I also have training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and this is one strategy I use for helping clients promote emotion regulation. My passion is to help people I work with to live more meaningful lives right now, cultivating openness to experience and engagement in the things that matter to you.

As a self-described nerd, in my free time I enjoy amateur astronomy and astrophotography, reading sciencey books, meditating, cycling, talking Star Trek with friends, chilling with my siblings, and playing with my cat Darwin.

Training Background

Although I started my college education in mechanical engineering, I found I wanted something more people-focused and on a hunch one weekend changed my major to psychology. I never really looked back, and found the field to be a great fit that fulfills both my nerdy, academic side and my desire to connect to, understand, and help my fellow humans. I graduated from the University of Toledo with a B.A. in Psychology, and went on to earn my M.A. in Psychology and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Fuller Graduate School of Psychology in Pasadena, where I focused on working with older adults, college students, and folks struggling with eating disorders.

In 2015, I trained at the Wichita Collaborative Psychology Internship Program in Kansas, where I was a part of a Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) treatment team and started to learn Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Learning and engaging with ACT and other contextual behavioral interventions has had a profound impact on both my personal life and on the way I understand psychological suffering in my clients. After internship, I stayed on at Prairie View Mental Health to finish my post-doctoral training, further learning DBT and leading a multifamily DBT group helping teens and their parents with emotion dysregulation. It’s also here where I first encountered folks struggling with OCD-related problems, and began learning and practicing Exposure and Response Prevention. I loved seeing people gain freedom from the cycle of intrusive thoughts and rituals, witnessing with my clients how a different relationship with anxiety can open up to more meaningful living.

After I was independently licensed in 2017, I joined Purdue Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) where I further dug into ACT, getting a chance to adapt Emily Sandoz’s and Troy DuFrene’s body image workbook to a group therapy format. I continued to practice DBT, leading skills training groups, and expanded my skillsets treating OC-related concerns among college-students. I began my current practice in 2020, which gave me the opportunity to focus on my specialization in problems of OC and anxiety.

I both love and need to keep learning, since it’s a part of what makes life colorful for me. I’m active in the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science community, where I participate in regular peer consultation to continue honing my skills in ACT, ERP, and clinical behavior analysis.