The Relationship OCD Research Unit (ROCD-RU) at the Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Reichman University, studies obsessive-compulsive symptoms that center on close relationships: romantic relationships, relationships between parents and children, and a person’s relationship with God.
The unit was founded by Prof. Guy Doron together with Dr. Danny Derby. Systematic research began in 2010, and the first papers describing ROCD were published in 2012. Our aim is to understand what causes and maintains these symptoms, to reduce misdiagnosis, and to improve evidence-based treatment.
What we work on
- Describing and measuring ROCD, including the ROCI and PROCSI questionnaires and their translations
- A cognitive behavioral model of how ROCD develops and what keeps it going
- Vulnerabilities such as attachment insecurity, self-worth tied to the relationship, and beliefs about love
- Treatment: a modular CBT approach, an online treatment program, and app-based interventions
Our team
Prof. Guy Doron
Founder and head of the unit
Professor at the Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, Reichman University. He has studied OCD and related phenomena since 2000, is one of the researchers who first described ROCD, and co-created the CBT app ocd.app.
Dr. Danny Derby
Co-founder of the unit
Clinical psychologist and one of the researchers who first described ROCD. Founder and director of Cognetica, the Israeli Center for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and a former chair of the Israeli CBT association (ITA).
Dr. Tamar Podoly
Researcher and clinician
Specialist developmental clinical psychologist and certified CBT supervisor, working with children and adults with OCD, anxiety and trauma, and with parents on family accommodation. Her research examines sensory phenomena in OCD (Podoly & Ben-Sasson, 2020). She teaches in the clinical psychology MA program at the University of Haifa.
Former members of the unit
Researchers and clinicians who were part of the unit over the years and contributed to its studies and treatment programs.
Prof. Ohad Szepsenwol
Researcher, attachment and close relationships
Now at the Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, where he studies attachment, early-life stress and romantic relationships. With the unit he co-authored the first ROCD studies, the ROCD conceptual framework (Doron, Derby & Szepsenwol, 2014) and a randomized trial of an app-based intervention for couples (Gorelik et al., 2023).
Dr. Dahlia Talmor
Clinical psychologist
Co-author of the two 2012 studies that first described relationship-centered and partner-focused ROCD symptoms and introduced the ROCI and PROCSI questionnaires (Doron et al., 2012a; 2012b).
Dr. Ran Littman
Clinical psychologist
Specialist clinical psychologist (PhD, Hebrew University of Jerusalem) who treats OCD and ROCD and writes the Relationship OCD blog on Psychology Today. With the unit he led a study of how ROCD symptoms pass between partners and relate to susceptibility to infidelity (Littman et al., 2023) and was part of the online ROCD treatment team.
Dr. Asher Strauss
Clinical psychologist
Lecturer in psychology at the College of Management Academic Studies (PhD, Hebrew University of Jerusalem). His research focuses on doubt and checking in OCD and on internet-delivered CBT. He was part of the online ROCD treatment team and works with Prof. Doron and Dr. Derby on a trial of a brief intervention for rumination.
Dr. Li Tibi
Clinical psychologist
Her doctoral research at Ben-Gurion University examined clinical, cognitive and interpersonal predictors of the long-term course of OCD. With the unit she co-authored a study of sexual dysfunction in ROCD (Derby, Tibi & Doron, 2021). She teaches CBT at Cognetica and supervises therapists in CPT and the Unified Protocol at the Trauma Recovery Center of the Hebrew University.
Maya Schonbach
Clinical psychology
Studied clinical psychology at Tel Aviv University, after a BA in psychology at Reichman University and a BMath at the University of Waterloo. She co-authored the study on ROCD symptoms and infidelity (Littman et al., 2023) and was part of the online ROCD treatment team.
Yael Lev
Clinical psychologist
Specialist clinical psychologist who completed her clinical internship at Cognetica. She was part of the team that developed the ROCD treatment program and created psychoeducational materials for the general public, making the unit’s work accessible to people affected by relationship doubts and to those close to them.
International collaborators
Our work has been carried out with research teams in Italy, Australia, Canada, Turkey and other countries, and the ROCD questionnaires have been translated into many languages. Meet our international collaborators.