Empowering Driven Minds to Rise Above OCD and Burnout – Exclusive Interview with Cali Werner
In this interview, mental health clinician and performance consultant Cali Werner shares how she helps athletes and high-achieving individuals overcome OCD, anxiety, perfectionism, and burnout. By combining evidence-based care with real-world experience, she empowers clients to build resilience, embrace discomfort, and rediscover joy in both performance and everyday life.
Cali Werner, Director of Business Development and Behavior Therapist
Who is Cali Werner?
I’m a mental health clinician specializing in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), related anxiety disorders, perfectionism, and burnout. At the OCD Institute of Texas, one of the nation’s few residential programs dedicated exclusively to OCD and related conditions, I engage in treatment, education, and collaboration of care with clinicians and patients.
I’m also a Certified Mental Performance Consultant and former Division I collegiate and Olympic Trials distance runner. My passion for supporting athletes and high-achieving individuals led me to found Athlete Rising, LLC, where I help patients break free from the mental barriers that limit both performance and well-being. My approach integrates evidence-based therapy with the realities of elite performance and everyday life, guiding clients toward lasting freedom from anxiety, resilience, and confidence.
What problem do you solve for the clients who come to you?
Many of my patients feel trapped in cycles of anxiety, perfectionism, or obsessive thinking that keep them from performing or living at their best. I help them learn how to respond differently to fear and uncertainty through Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), cognitive-behavioral strategies, and a performance mindset. Together, we focus on regaining confidence, purpose, and freedom both in sport and beyond.
What makes your approach different from others in your field?
My approach combines lived experience as a competitive athlete with clinical evidence-based treatment for those with OCD and related anxiety disorders. I also love being a part of a collaborative care model at the OCD Institute of Texas, one of the few residential and day treatment facilities in the country dedicated solely to OCD and related anxiety disorders. Working in that environment has allowed me to see what truly drives long-term recovery: evidence-based care delivered by a multidisciplinary team that treats patients with individualized and compassionate care.
Who is the ideal client you love working with, and why?
I love working with athletes, performers, and driven individuals who are ready to face fear head-on. Whether it’s a collegiate runner struggling with intrusive thoughts or a professional navigating post-Olympic identity loss, I’m drawn to people who want to reclaim joy and freedom not by avoiding discomfort, but by learning to move through it.
What are the most common challenges you see people facing before they work with you?
Many patients have tried to manage anxiety or OCD on their own, through control, reassurance, or overpreparation, only to feel more stuck. Others have received the wrong treatment modality, leaving symptoms stagnant or worsening. I often see exhaustion, loss of identity, and the belief that “something must be wrong with me.” My role is to show patients they aren’t broken, and that their struggles can become a part of their resilience story. Finally, I want patients to see that there truly is such a thing as “freedom from anxiety.”
How do you help clients achieve lasting results, not just short-term wins?
I focus on teaching patients how to tolerate uncertainty, discomfort, and anxiety so they can sustain progress outside of sessions. I teach patients how to manage anxiety without trying to make it go away. In turn, this helps anxiety get quieter while they learn to live within their values again.
What is one misconception about your industry that you wish more people understood?
That therapy is about feeling better. In reality, effective therapy, especially for OCD and anxiety, is about getting better at feeling. Growth comes from learning to face what’s uncomfortable rather than seeking quick relief that is only temporary. It’s not about erasing fear, but expanding your capacity to live fully despite it.
Can you share a client success story that reflects the type of transformation you create?
Many patients I see begin to resent something they once loved due to the amount of anxiety and distress that comes with it (e.g., performing in sport, going to work, raising a child). With time and behavioral change from CBT and ERP, patients learn to respond differently to their anxiety without letting it take over the driver’s seat of their life, which reignites the love for the game, sport, career, etc.
What core principles guide the way you work with people?
Freedom > certainty. Progress > perfection. Courage > comfort. These principles guide every session. I believe in evidence-based care rooted in compassion, honesty, and collaboration.
We go beyond symptom reduction. We build resilience, confidence, and trust in one’s ability to face life as it comes.
What should someone expect when they begin working with you?
We’ll start by identifying how anxiety or OCD shows up in your life, then create an individualized behavioral plan with clear goals and active exercises (including exposures) to help you move forward. Sessions are interactive and empowering, you’ll be challenged, which is necessary for growth! We will work collaboratively to help you get better at not always running to the fight-or-flight section of the brain while it is sending false alarms, which only worsen symptoms. We work on rewiring the brain by creating new neural pathways in the brain, so that when the brain screams “fire,” we are able to recognize that there may not actually be a fire.
If someone is thinking about reaching out but feels hesitant, what would you want them to know?
You are not alone.
Evidence-based treatment works.
No one ever regrets getting their life back earlier or being preventative.
You don’t have to have everything figured out before you begin. Reaching out is not a sign of weakness, but of strength, the first step toward reclaiming control from fear and finding freedom again.
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