TraceyP - just been having a quick look through a couple of books on OCD - the OCD Workbook doesn't appear to have anything in on counting.
Lee Baer (Getting Control) has this to say on Repeating Rituals and Counting Compulsions:-
Warning - about to do a lengthy quote about treatment of OCD - not likely to be very interesting to most people:-
"As with all OCD symptoms, in beginning behaviour therapy for repeating and counting problems you should get back in touch with what normal behaviour is. To help you set your long-term goals, ask two or three people you know well (including your helper) whether they would repeat the things you do or count the things you do. Usually people who don't have OCD repeat or count things only when they are very nervous or distracted. Picture the expectant father pacing back and forth in the waiting room, awaiting news of his newborn baby. He may also count the tiles on the floor, just trying to pass the time or keep his mind occupied. But if his attention is called to them, he can stop repeating or counting if you become aware of it.
The difference is that someone with OCD can't simply stop doing these things. One woman I treated had to wash each part of her body eleven times, with seven repetitions each time, or she would feel dirty. Another patient, after placing his eyeglasses on his night table, had to stare at them while counting to one thousand to reassure himself that he had not thrown them on the floor and broken them.
Exposure and response prevention are straightforward for counting and repeating rituals. First you identify the situations that trigger these rituals, such as reading a book. Then step-by-step, you expose yourself to these situations while resisting the urge to count or repeat actions for increasing periods of time afterward.
Probably the most important technique in exposure and response prevention for repeating and counting rituals is involving a helper in your practice. You'll greatly improve your chances of success if you work with a helper. If, once you confront the situations that trigger your rituals, you get stuck counting objects or repeating actions, your helper can remind you to stop this behaviour before you get caught in a loop that is difficult to break out of.
If you find that you go back and reread what you have already read, use the following technique, which was developed to teach speed-reading: point your index finger under the line you are reading and move it across the line; when you get to the end of the line, move your finger down to the next line and begin again. If the urge to reread something hits you, just continue following your finger down and across the page; since your finger is always moving, you won't be able to go back and reread. The urge will slowly subside if you continue this practice. With thought, you and your helper can come up with similar methods to help you with response prevention for your particular problems.
Your early practice goals should involve confronting situations that trigger these urges, while resisting the compulsions for increasing lengths of time. Start out resisting for only a few minutes if that is all you can handle. Later, as you succeed with these early practice goals, you can extend response prevention to the full one or two hours. ..........
As is true for many other OCD symptoms, the urges to perform your rituals are stronger during times of intense stress; if you do, you'll find they will subside again once the stress is past. "