Boldly You
Psychotherapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD)
ACT is an evidence based therapy that has been around since the 90's. It has been used effectively to treat many different types of clinical problems. ACT works primarily by helping people cultivate psychological flexibility.
There are six factors of psychological flexibility. Here are some brief descriptions of these factors and how people with OCPD might work on flexibility in therapy.
Cognitive flexibility
Cognitive flexibility, also referred to as cognitive defusion, has to do with getting some distance from thoughts and relating to them more flexibly. For people with OCPD, this can mean breaking habits of taking thoughts too seriously or responding to thoughts automatically and rigidly. "Should" thoughts, judgmental thoughts, and self-critical thoughts are common targets of this work for people with OCPD.
Emotional flexibility
Emotional flexibility, also referred to as acceptance or willingness, involves being willing to feel your emotions while acting in line with your values. This is opposed to stepping away from your values in order to avoid emotions, suppress them, fix them, or get rid of them. Common targets of this work for individuals with OCPD are frustration, anger, anxiety, uncertainty, and guilt.
Attentional flexibility
Attentional flexibility has to do with being aware of the locus of your attention and being able to purposefully direct your attention in ways that help you live your life the way you want to. It is common for people with OCPD to not realize that they are checked out of the present moment and to spend much of their time with their attention on the future.
Flexible perspective taking
Flexible perspective taking involves loosening attachments to identity labels and getting in touch with a deeper and more contextual sense of self. For individuals with OCPD, this can involve relating more flexibly to stories and labels about the self (e.g., I am responsible, I am the Chair of my department) and grounding in the stable self that transcends labels.
Chosen purpose
Your chosen purpose, also referred to as values, is what you choose to make your life about. Common challenges for people with OCPD in clarifying their values are moving past goal-setting mindset to identify values, distinguishing what matters to you deep down from what others have told you "should" be important, and attempting to logically decide which values are "right" or "best."
Behavioral flexibility
Behavioral flexibility, also referred to as committed action, has to do with finding ways to act in line with your values, even when thoughts and emotions make this difficult. For people with OCPD, work in this area can involve breaking habits of automatically or rigidly acting on rules, routines, and principles. Getting used to sensing and trusting values to guide action in real time can also be a challenge.
ACT is not about changing who you are.
I mean it! People with obsessive-compulsive personality traits often experience a high degree of conflict in their lives and are often misunderstood. You may have even had negative experiences in therapy in the past. ACT is different. I believe that your personality is your superpower, and self-acceptance will be the foundation of our work together.
ACT can help you to…
Clarify who you are and what’s important to you, especially in life domains beyond your education/career
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Reflect on what’s working in your life and how you can be most effective
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Spend more of your life living in the present moment rather than constantly planning for the future
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Reflect on factors in your history and current life that might be reinforcing patterns you don’t like
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Tune into your own emotional experience and the emotional experiences of your loved ones
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Mitigate the impacts of procrastination and perfectionism on your task completion
