Skin Picking & Hair Pulling (BFRBs)

Treatment begins with a careful assessment of where, when, and how the behavior happens — the settings, emotions, physical sensations, and thoughts that surround it. Because BFRBs are highly individual, this functional understanding is what makes treatment effective: it identifies the specific triggers and payoffs that keep skin picking or hair pulling in place rather than treating everyone the same way.

The core of treatment is Habit Reversal Training (HRT), the most well-established behavioral treatment for BFRBs. Dr. Kim helps you build awareness of the behavior and its earliest warning signs, then develop a competing response — something incompatible with picking or pulling — that you can use in the moment. This is paired with stimulus-control strategies that change the environment so the behavior is harder to do automatically.

Dr. Kim works within the Comprehensive Behavioral (ComB) model, which looks across sensory, cognitive, affective, motor, and environmental domains to target each of the drivers unique to you. She also integrates elements of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and DBT-informed emotion-regulation and distress-tolerance skills, because for many people BFRBs are tightly linked to stress, anxiety, boredom, or perfectionism.

Throughout, the tone is collaborative and non-judgmental. Setbacks are treated as information, not failure, and progress is measured honestly. Dr. Kim provides this care for adults, adolescents, and children, coordinating with parents and, when appropriate, dermatologists or other providers involved in your care.