Committed Action Exercises in OCD
Key Points
- There are formal and informal ways to introduce committed action.
- The clients leave the session with a plan of action to make decisions that are difficult for them.
- This guides decision-making related to OCD avoidance and decisions to engage in a compulsion.
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Transcript
There are formal and informal ways to cover committed action.
I'm going to start by talking about the more informal phrases that I will use with clients, but I also can use these as an introduction to the more formal practices. I tell clients the space between where we want to be and where we are is fertile ground for suffering to grow and the larger that space is the more suffering that is allowed.
Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (2011). Acceptance and commitment therapy: The process and practice of mindful change. Guilford Press.,Twohig, M. P. (2004). ACT for OCD: Abbreviated treatment manual [Unpublished treatment manual]. University of Nevada.
Our goal is to decrease the space of where we want our life to be and where we are and that reduces the space for suffering to grow there. So our goal is to ensure that you are as close as possible to where you want to be in life regardless of what OCD says or what it does, and you absolutely now have the skills to be flexible in the face of fear. OCD tends to narrow lives and what we're focusing on is the practice of gradually broadening out your life so you may live it to its fullest.
Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (2011). Acceptance and commitment therapy: The process and practice of mindful change. Guilford Press.,Twohig, M. P. (2004). ACT for OCD: Abbreviated treatment manual [Unpublished treatment manual]. University of Nevada.