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Assessment
Psychologists are the only profession in mental health to be specifically and comprehensively trained in the science of psychology. Many different types of clinician are trained to assess psychological functions and behaviour to some degree, but not to that expected of a practitioner psychologist. We are trained to apply the science of psychology, it's method, theories and standards to all our work. As a result assessments are thorough, and not led by just one model of therapy or professional function (e.g. diagnosis).
Diagnosis
Psychologists (and psychiatrists) are trained as diagnosticians as part of their core training. The process of diagnosis is more complicated than ticking a set of criteria off a list, and requires the integration of a great deal of information from multiple sources, and following specific scientific principles. Without this experience and training, it is easy to miss a diagnosis, or allocate the wrong diagnosis. Abraham Maslow put it well when he said "If all you have is a hammer, all you see is nails". With a core training, and supervised accredited practice in diagnostics, psychologists can meet the clinician's duty of care to not cause harm by missing or mis-diagnosing.
Treatment
The recommended approach for OCD is exposure response prevention, within an CBT framework. This is based on the amount of research that shows it can be effective. However it is not always effective, and in those circumstances it is wise to consider other evidence-based approaches.
Metacognitive therapy is one such evidence based approach, which evidence suggests can be more effective, quicker and longer lasting than CBT for many conditions.
Inference based therapy is a model of cognitive therapy which has been specifically designed for OCD and has a well established evidence base.
