ACT and ERP for OCD
Key Points
- Present the exposures from an ACT perspective.
- Exposures are explicit practices where clients face a feared stimulus.
- Focus the practice on the ACT processes rather than toleration of distress.
Materials Downloads
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Transcript
Now, let's talk about adding ACT to Exposure and Response Prevention or vice versa.
If you are adding ACT into exposure therapies, the exposure component of treatment is part of the committed action process so you can introduce that at this point in therapy. However, you may choose to introduce exposures earlier in treatment and that's okay as well, just be thinking about it as part of the committed action process that it's a behavior that they are engaging in.
Twohig, M. P., Abramowitz, J. S., Bluett, E. J., Fabricant, L. E., Jacoby, R. J., Morrison, K. L., Reuman, L., & Smith, B. M. (2015). Exposure therapy for OCD from an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) framework. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 6, 167–173.
So exposures are explicit practices where the client faces a feared stimulus, and this is an optional part of ACT for OCD treatment. However, ACT in combination with ERP and ERP alone are effective treatments for OCD and so you are fine adding them in or just doing ACT alone because there's also strong research evidence for ACT alone for OCD.
Twohig, M. P., Abramowitz, J. S., Bluett, E. J., Fabricant, L. E., Jacoby, R. J., Morrison, K. L., Reuman, L., & Smith, B. M. (2015). Exposure therapy for OCD from an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) framework. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 6, 167–173.