ACT for OCD: Abbreviated Treatment Manual

Put together by Michael P. Twohig

University of Nevada, Summer 2004

Adapted from

Hayes, S.C., Batten, S., Gifford, E., Wilson, K.G., Afairi, N., & McCurry, S. (1999).
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy An Individual Psychotherapy Manual for
the Treatment of Experiential Avoidance, Second Edition. Reno, NV: Context
Press.
Hayes, S. C. Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and Commitment
Therapy: An experiential approach to behavior change. New York: Guilford
Press.

Therapist Orientation:
There are fundamental differences between ACT therapists and therapists in other
more control-oriented orientations. These differences are laid out in the ACT book and
should be read and understood. One can deliver all the exercises and metaphors as written
in the book but not be doing ACT. At the core of this therapeutic strategy is the
assumption that that there is nothing wrong with the client. The client is not broken and
coming into the therapist to be fixed. The therapist must remember that the client is part
of the same verbal community as the therapist and struggles with the same attempts to
control emotions. If the therapist can feel that the client is struggling, and share in that
struggle, then the therapist will be more effective. The therapist likely never had OCD,
but surely the therapist has struggled with worries about competency, feeling of not being
loved, and worries about the future. Simply put, you are both in holes, just different ones.
Bring that into the room in the service of helping the client.
Also, there is an inherent difficulty in turning any personal interaction such as
ACT, into a manulized treatment. Thus, please be flexible. If the client is demonstrating
fusion in the first session the therapist should be flexible and respond to it in an ACT
consistent manner, and make sure that creative hopelessness gets covered. If the client is
unclear why it might be worth feeling uncomfortable and not responding to the obsession
make sure to link the work to the client’s values.

Must Read:
ACT Book. Chapter 10. Effective ACT Therapeutic Relationship

Therapist Training
At a minimum level the therapist should have read the ACT book and be familiar
with the particular philosophy underlying ACT - functional contextualism. It would be in
the therapist’s best interest to attend some type of experiential ACT workshop. These are
offered many times pre year. Information on these workshops is available at
www.acceptanceandcommitmenttherapy.com.
Session One

Must Reads:
ACT Book -- Chapter 4: Creative Hopelessness: Challenging the Normal Change Agenda

Session One Focus:

1. Introduction
2. Discuss limits to confidentiality
3. Getting participant on board
4. General assessment of OCD
5. Introduction of Creative Hopelessness

NOTE: This protocol is a general protocol for eight, weekly, one-hour sessions of
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Each
section of the treatment will have core intervention strategies, with additional
treatment strategies will be listed at the end of each section. Because this manual
will not fit all clients’ needs, it may be tailored to each particular client. Tailoring of
the treatment may involve shifting components in this treatment manual to different
sessions than indicated, or adding material to support the components that are
already suggested in this manual. Only material that is ACT consistent may be
added to the intervention.

1. Introduction
Make sure the client understands what he or she has agreed to participate in. The
participant will be attending eight sessions of therapy. The sessions will occur every
week, generally at the same time on the same day. The client is expected to attend all
sessions and to contact the therapist if he or she cannot attend. Make sure that you have
the clients phone number(s) so you can reschedule in case the client does not attend the
session. At the end of these eight sessions the client will be expected to attend a
posttreatment assessment.
Allow the participant to ask you questions concerning the study.

2. Discuss limits to confidentiality

Explain that everything that occurs in session will remain confidential. The only
exceptions top this are that selected individuals will watch a selected number of the
videotapes and score them for treatment integrity. In addition, confidentiality must be
broken according to the ethical codes of the American Psychological Association. This
includes: if the client reports plans of harming themselves or others, or reports harming a
child or the elderly.

3. Getting participant on board

Informed Consent
Any treatment for OCD is going to be psychologically difficult. The client likely
has fears about contacting his or her obsessions and will have some reservations about
beginning treatment. To keep from scaring the client away from the treatment and to help
the therapeutic relationship, the client should be made aware of what treatment involves.
This can be difficult because ACT is an experiential therapy. Therefore the following
description might be useful.

Therapist: I believe in letting clients know what will happen in therapy. I see two ways
to go. Many therapists would work with you to change directly how you think
and feel. That may be an option. However, since you have tried this general
approach before, there is a second approach. It is more demanding, and it can be
confusing. I can’t fully describe this approach to you because to some degree
explaining the therapy happens in the course of this therapy. But it is based on
the idea that instead of helping you win the struggle you have been in it might
work better to help you step out of that struggle. It is focused on the things that
have kept you struggling and it seeks to change those things. It is pretty
fundamental work, dealing with the relationship between you and your
psychological experiences - your emotions, thoughts, memories, and so on. It is
not an approach to be entered into lightly, but it has been helpful for some people
with problems like yours.

If the client indicates an interest in ACT, a warning is usually given:

Therapist: As I said, we will get into fairly basic issues, including some that you
might not have expected in therapy. My experience with this approach is that it can
put you on a bit of a roller coaster. All kinds of different emotions might emerge:
interest, boredom, anxiety, sadness, clarity, confusion, and so on. It is like cleaning
out a dirty glass with sludge in the bottom: the only way to do it is to stir up the dirt.
So some stuff might get stirred up, and for a while, things may look worse before they
look better. It is not that it is overwhelming - it is just that you should be prepared to
let show up whatever comes up.

Commitment to a Course
The treatment of OCD, for some, can be difficult and frightening. Also, in some
cases, the outcomes of ACT are not seen until later in the treatment. Therefore, the client
should be warned of this and agree to participate in the entire treatment and not to judge
the treatment impulsively.

Therapist: A fundamental treatment like this is best done by carving out some space
within which to work. Especially if we end up stirring up old issues sometimes it
might look like we are going backward when we are really going forward. It is
like exercise: sometimes good things hurt a bit. I believe that clients should hold
therapists accountable: I’m not asking for a blank check. If we are moving ahead,
you will know it and we will both see it in your life. It is just that we can’t be
sure of this on a week to week basis. So what I would like is a period of time - 8
sessions. Let’s push ahead for that amount of time no matter what - even if you
really want to quit. One of the reasons that I find this important, is that if you do
not really engage in these 8 sessions you will not really know whether this
treatment is useful or not.
Covering Some Basics
Alliance Building. In addition to providing and gathering the necessary
information during these sessions, the therapist should also work to be warm, empathetic,
and accepting. It is important that the client and therapist have a sense of mutual trust and
respect before beginning work from an acceptance and commitment perspective.
By the time our clients have gotten in front of us, they have almost certainly tried
many, many things in an attempt to get control of their obsessions. They are also likely to
be in considerable distress. It is worthwhile for the therapist to try to get a sense of the
client’s struggle “from the inside.” You might tell the client something like:

Therapist: Of course, I haven’t had the same experiences as you, but to the extent
possible, it will help me in providing your treatment if I can get a sense of your
struggle from the inside – to get a sense of how the world is from inside your skin.
Now, I’m not going to pretend that I know all of the ins and outs of the specific
things you struggle with; we don’t share that experience. What we do share,
though, is more fundamental. We’re both humans, and as humans, we have
access to the human struggle. My expertise is in helping people to move forward
who have gotten stuck, and who have tried a lot of things to get unstuck. Your
job will be to be the expert on your difficulties. My job will be to see how our
approach applies to the particulars of your difficulties.

Two Mountains Metaphor

It’s like you’re in the process of climbing up a big mountain that has lots of
dangerous places on it. My job is to watch out for you and shout out directions if I
can see places you might slip or hurt yourself. But I’m not able to do this because
I’m standing at the top of your mountain, looking down at you. If I’m able to help
you climb your mountain, it’s because I’m on my own mountain, just across a valley.
I don’t have to know anything about exactly what it feels like to climb your mountain
to see where you are about to step, and what might be a better path for you to take.

4. General assessment
The function of the general assessment is to get a sense of what the client’s OCD
is like. The manual will fit no matter what the client’s particular obsessions and
compulsions are. It is useful to know what the particular obsessions and compulsions are
to properly apply the manual.

 Ask the client to describe their obsessions and compulsions. There will likely be
many different obsession and compulsions. Have the client indicate what the main
one(s) are. Ask how long OCD has been a problem? What other treatments have
the client tried? Have they even had periods of time when they did not have
OCD?
 What are the situation when they do the compulsions the most often and
occasions the obsessions?
 Why are they participating in the treatment? How will getting control of the OCD
make his or her life better?
The assessment phase can easily shift into Creative Hopelessness by ending the
assessment with questions concerning the obsession and the different ways that the client
tries to decrease his or her obsessions. The client might have a number of different
obsessions such as checking, washing, repeating, ordering, counting, and hoarding. The
client might also engage in a number of other avoidance behaviors such as: covert
compulsions, neutralizing, magical thinking, different assurance strategies such as calling
ones family members to make sure they are not injured, rationalizing, and avoiding
situations that elicit the obsession. Try and get a sense of all the different things the client
does to get rid of the obsession once it is there.

5. Creative Hopelessness: Challenging the client’s change agenda

This section begins with uncovering the class of behaviors that are in the client’s
repertoire that all have the function of escaping or avoiding the obsession or feelings of
anxiety that are associated with the obsession. The therapist should help the client figure
out all the different things that he or she does to decrease or avoid the obsession and
assess the effectiveness of these strategies. What the therapist and the client are looking
for, are the methods that are effective in the long run. Many of these escape methods will
decrease the obsession immediately, such as engaging in the compulsion, but they are not
effective methods in the long run. The obsession comes back.
The different escape/avoidance behaviors will include the compulsion, avoiding
certain situations, different methods of self-talk, reassurance, possibly drugs (both legal
and illegal), and a variety of other behaviors. The goal of this phase is to help the client
come into contact with the effectiveness of what he or she has been doing to decrease or
control the obsession. It is very likely that all of the client’s escape/avoidance behaviors
are not successful in the long run. If any of them were successful, the client would have
done it already.
The therapist needs to be careful in this phase not to make the client feel as
though the therapist is blaming him or her for what he or she has been doing. The
therapist should help the client see that this is what most humans do with private events
that are uncomfortable.
This is a very important phase in the treatment of OCD; a substantial amount of
time can be spent on this phase of the treatment. The therapist should not move on before
the client sees and feels the uselessness and paradoxical affects of the control agenda.
Often times the client will slip back into his or her control agenda throughout treatment
and the therapist will need to help the client check out the function of his or her behavior.

Therapist: Besides cleaning the counters in your kitchen, tell me some of the other things
that you do to decrease that feeling you have
Client: Well…I will not go into the kitchen
Therapist: Good…How well does that work
Client: Not bad. It sort of keeps my mind off it, but at some point I have to go in there.
Therapist: This strategy is not a long term answer to handling the urge is it? I bet even
though you are not in the kitchen your thoughts are still on the counter.
 This process should continue through all the different things that the client does to
decrease his or her obsession and associated feelings of anxiety. Make sure not to blame
the client. You should almost act as if you are on the client’s side and trying to figure out
what works to decrease the obsession.

If the client is unsure what works and what does not you can help the client think
of all the different methods that might work and send the client home to try these
methods. Do not try and talk the client into this, let the client’s experience tell him or her
that these methods are not effective.

Difference between the obsession and the compulsion:

During this phase of the treatment many clients will try and explain the different
things that he or she does to control the compulsion and not the obsession. The idea that
the obsession and the compulsion do not always occur together is really difficult for
clients to understand. In a sense, this is one of the main things we are trying to help the
client understand, that the obsession can occur without the compulsion. This is best
taught experientially.

Client: I keep myself busy so I do not check.

Therapist: Do you keep yourself busy so the urge to check does not show up or so you do
not check?
Client: I don’t get it?
Therapist: What I am trying to figure out is how successfully you can control the urge to
check, not how well you can control the checking. I know you can not check. I could
come over to your house and stop you from checking. I could lock you in a room or tape
you to a chair. But what I want to know is how well you can control your urges to check,
your obsessions.
Client: I never thought about the difference.
Therapist: The two happen together so often that we forget that one doesn’t necessarily
include the other. Here is an example.

Therapist: Check like you normally do (or whatever the compulsion is)
Client: But I do not feel like it right now.
Therapist: That is fine. Are you wiling to do it anyway?
Client: OK (checks)
Therapist: How strong was the urge to check there.
Client: Very low.
Therapist: Say I told you that you dropped your keys under the chair. What would happen
to your urge to check?
Client: It would go through the roof.
Therapist: How do you feel now?
Client: I wonder is they really did fall out of my pocket.
Therapist: Go ahead and check. (Client checks). Notice how you checked when the urge
chose to check or not, but I am not sure if you got to decide if you had the urge or not.
What I want to figure out is how well you can control that urge.
Homework: Ask the client to keep track of the effectiveness of the different strategies
that he or she uses to decrease the obsessions. Tell the client to try everything and see
what really work in the long run. The following homework can be given to the
participant.

Homework 1
Client Homework: What Works
1. Write down everything that your OCD has cost you. Be as specific as possible.
2. Now write down a list of everything you have done in an attempt to control your
obsessions. Be thorough and specific: you should be able to come up with several
examples of strategies you've used in your attempts to solve it, and many specific
examples where you have used these strategies (talking yourself out of it,
rationalizing, avoiding, getting help from others, criticizing yourself, etc.).
3. Honestly evaluate how far each of these strategies have brought you toward solving the
problem.

Session 2.

Session Two Focus:

1. Assess functioning
2. Review reactions to last session
3. Review homework
4. Continue with Creative Hopelessness

1. Assess functioning.
Check how the client’s week went. Check for external stressors such as
difficulties at work or in the family. These areas will not be directly targeted but are
useful because they can affect treatment. Check the rate of the obsessions and
compulsions. Basically, see how things are for the client out of session.

2. Review reaction to last session.

Ask the client if he or she had any reactions to the last session. This gives the
client an opportunity to ask questions or share reactions to the material from the last
session. Whatever the client’s reaction is, is fine. In some cases the material will be very
clear to the client and in some cases it will not make sense to the client. Do not try
arguing or pressuring the client into believing what was said in session. Let the client’s
experience guide his or her behavior. Allowing the client to present his or her reactions
allows the therapist to see where the client is and what areas require additional attention.
The therapist should be compassionate because engaging in this therapy can be difficult.

3. Review Homework
If the client does not complete the homework the therapist should assess the
variables that got in the way. Very likely, the same variables that get in the way of the
client experiencing the obsession and not acting on it are the same ones that got in the
way of the client not doing the homework. Try and help bring these variables to the
client’s attention. The client may have not completed the homework because it was it was
too emotionally difficult, did not make the time, or did not want to. All of these have an
avoidance component to them. Help the client see that part of the thing that got in the
way was that he or she had to do something that was difficult and did not feel good. This
is very much like the struggle that the client is in when the obsession occurs and the
client must decide to engage in the compulsion or not. Again, this should not be done in a
blaming fashion. The purpose is to help the client see that a large part of our behavior is
guided by avoiding unpleasant activities. If the homework is not competed it can either
be completed in session with the therapist or reassigned with the next homework
assignment.

4. Continue with Creative Hopelessness

The client was asked to assess the effectiveness of his or her strategies to control
the obsession. These should be reviewed with the therapist.

Therapist: Tell me some of the things that you tried when to control the obsession.
Client: I told myself that it was no bid deal and that I could handle it.
Therapist: How well did that work?
Client: Seemed to make it a little easier.
Therapist: But is sounds like the obsession was still there.
Client: Yes.
Therapist: So what did you do?
Client: I tried to wait is out. I did other things, distracted myself, but in the end I had to
give up because it was too much.
Therapist: You have told me a lot of things you have tried to do, and it seems to me that
you have tried to do just about everything that is logically there to be done.
You’ve done all the obvious and reasonable things. You’ve thought hard, you’ve
worked hard. You’ve looked for the angles. And now here you are in therapy
once again ... still trying. But you’ve come to me. I work for you. So it is my
obligation to point something out: this isn’t working, right?
Client: I haven’t figured it out yet.
Therapist: Here is another way to say what you just said: even trying to figure it out isn’t
working so far.
Client: Not yet.
Therapist: Not yet. And even in that “not yet” I hear “but it will. Surely it will.” What if
it won’t? What if this whole thing is a setup?
Client: A setup?
Therapist: Don’t you smell a rat here? It doesn’t make sense. You’re an intelligent
person. You’ve worked on this problem. Sometimes it even seemed to be getting
better. And yet, here you are in therapy again. Isn’t it true in your experience,
although it doesn’t seem that it should be this way, that the more you’ve struggled
with these obsessions and urges - the more you have tried to get rid of them - the
more difficult it has become. They don’t seem to respond to conscious control.
As you have run away or escaped, the obsessions haven’t gotten smaller, they
have gotten bigger.
Client: I don’t know how to get rid of them. I’m hoping you can help. How should I get
rid of them? What am I doing wrong?
Therapist: Those are important questions because they show what has been going on, but
let’s not get off on that issue quite yet. Let’s start with what you know directly.
You feel stuck.
Client: Right.
Therapist: It is not clear what to do next, but it doesn’t seem like there is a way out.
Client: Exactly.
Therapist: So I’m here to say “you are stuck. There is no way out.” .... Within the system
in which you have been working there is only one thing that can happen: what has
been happening. Just consider that as a possibility. Look, you know it hasn’t
been working. Now let’s consider the possibility that it can’t work. It isn’t that
you aren’t clever enough, or don’t work hard enough. It’s a setup. A trap.
You’re stuck.
Client: So I’m hopeless. I should give up. Why am I coming in here?
Therapist: I don’t know. But right now it’s to try to see what hasn’t been working.
Anyway, I didn’t say you are hopeless, I said this is hopeless. This whole thing
that has been going on. This struggle that practically has you strangled is
hopeless. And, yeah, if a struggle is hopeless, it is time to give up on that
struggle. It is a hopelessness, but a creative kind of hopelessness. If we give up
on what hasn’t been working, maybe there is something else to do.
Client: Then what should I do?
Therapist: Well ... first let’s start from here. If this whole thing is a trick, a trap, we need
to open up to that so that something different can happen. You came in here expecting
some kind of trick, something to do, some solution I might have. You’ve been trying to
find the solution, you can’t find it, and maybe I have it. But maybe these so-called
solutions are actually part of the problem. And check and see if this isn’t so - maybe this
isn’t true for you but just look and see if it is: deep down you don’t believe that there is a
trick. If I brought out one more clever idea from a therapist, part of your mind would be
going “oh, yeah. Sure.” Your direct experience says this situation is hopeless. Your
mind says that of course there is a way out. There has got to be a way out. So which do
you believe: your mind or your experience?

Metaphor: Imagine that you’re placed in a field, wearing a blindfold, and you’re given a
little bag of tools. You’re told that your job is to run around this field,
blindfolded, and live your life. So you start running around and sooner or later
you fall into this big hole. Now one tendency you might have would be to try and
figure out how you got in the hole--exactly what path you followed. You might
tell yourself, “I went to the left, and over a little hill, and then I feel in,” etc. In
one sense, that may be true; you are in the hole because you walked exactly that
way. However, knowing that is not the solution to knowing how to get out of the
hole. Furthermore, even if you had not done exactly that, and you’d gone
somewhere else instead, in this metaphor, you might have fallen into another hole
anyway, because unbeknownst to you, in this field there are countless widely-
spaced, fairly deep holes. Anyway, so now you’re in this hole, blindfolded.
Probably what you would do in such a predicament is take the bag of tools you
 were given and try to get out of the hole. Now just suppose that the tool you’ve
been given is a shovel. So you dutifully start digging, but pretty soon you notice
that you’re not out of the hole. So you try digging faster, or with bigger
shovelfuls, or with a different style. More, different, and better. More, different,
and better. But all of that makes no difference, because digging is not the way out
of the hole; it only makes the hole bigger. Pretty soon this hole is huge. It has
multiple rooms, halls, and caverns. It is more and more elaborated. So maybe
you stop for a while and try to put up with it. But it doesn't work -- you are still in
the hole. This is like what has happended with your anxiety. It is bigger and
bigger. I has become a central focus of your life. You know all this hasn’t
worked. But what I’m saying is that it can’t work. You absolutely can't dig your
way out of the hole. It's hopeless. That’s not to say that there is no way out of the
hole. But within the system in which you have been working--no matter how
much motivation you have, or how hard you dig--there is no way out. This is not
a trick. No fooling. You know that sense you have that you are stuck? And that
you came here to get help to fix it? Well, you are stuck. And in the system in
which you are working, there is no way out. The things you’ve been taught to do
aren't working although they may work perfectly well somewhere else. The
problem is not in the tools; It’s in the situation in which you find yourself using
them. So you come in here wanting a gold-plated steam shovel from me. Well, I
can’t give it to you and even if I could I wouldn’t because that’s not going to
solve your problem. It'd only make it worse.” If client asks for the way out of the
hole, say something like “your job right now is not to figure out how to get out of
the hole. That is what you have been doing right along. Your job is to accept that
you are in one. In the position you are in right now, even if you were given other
things to do, it wouldn't work. The problem is not the tool -- it is the agenda. it is
digging. If you were given a ladder right now it wouldn’t do any good. You’d
only try to dig with it. And ladders make terrible shovels. If you need to dig,
you've got a perfectly good tool already. You can’t do anything else until you let
go of the shovel and let go of digging as the agenda. You need to make room for
something else in your hands. And that is a very difficult and bold thing to do.
The shovel appears to be the only tool you have. Letting go of it looks as though
it will doom you to stay in the hole forever. And I can’t really reassure you on
that. Nothing I can say right now would help ease the difficulty of what you have
to do here. Your best ally is your own pain, and the knowledge that nothing has
worked. Have you suffered enough? Are you ready to give up and do something
else?”

At this point in the treatment the client should be a little less attached to the
agenda that he or she needs to find a way to control the obsession. The control agenda
will still exist and the client will likely try and fit the metaphor into his or her control
agenda. Below are a couple of responses to commonly asked questions about the
metaphor.

“Participant: Oh, I see what you are saying. You’re saying I just need to open up to my
obsession.
Therapist: Isn’t that like you? To say that? Haven’t you thought similar things before?
“I need to open up.”
Participant: Many times. I have tried to stay open and just feel what I feel.
Therapist: And so if that were the solution, wouldn’t it have solved the problem before?

Here is another example:

Participant: I guess you want me to make steps with the shovel. Dig a staircase.
Therapist: Clever idea. Have your tried to do that?
Participant: I’ve tried everything.
Therapist: So that’s not it. I guess the sides are too loose to make stairs. We are going to
have to try something other than “everything.”

And here is another:

Participant: This is really neat. It reminds me of Zen Buddhism. I’ve always believed in
the eastern traditions. It sounds like that is what you are driving at.
Therapist: And so just notice that thought that your mind gave you. And I want to say
something in absolute confidence. 100% certainty. What you hear me saying
now. . . . whatever it is . . . that’s not it.
Participant: I’m confused.
Therapist: Good.
Participant: So why even think at all?
Therapist: So you can find out what I’m not talking about. ... And that thought? The one
that is forming right now? Look and see it. That’s not it either.

And a final example of the same sort:

Participant: I’m not exactly sure what you are driving at.
Therapist: I’m just asking you to look at your own experience. Just look.
Participant: So I’m not supposed to feel upset about myself. I’ve been blowing this all
out of proportion.
Therapist: That’s an interesting thought. And notice I didn’t say that. I definitely didn’t
say “you are blowing this all out of proportion.” I said “don’t believe a word I’m
saying.” Right?
Participant: So why even talk? I won’t get anything out of it.
Therapist: That a great one. Thank your mind for that one. Beautiful. And this is rather
like you, isn’t it? This is the kind of thing you do. So just notice that you are
doing it again. And notice that this is yet another formulation of the world -- as
you move from one to the other.
Participant: So what should I do?
Therapist: Start from here.
Participant: You mean if I start from here I can put the past behind me.
Therapist: Great. Great thought. And how has that worked in the past?
Participant: I’ve never been able to do it.
Therapist: Good. So what else comes up?
Participant: It sounds like whatever I say will be wrong.
Therapist: Super! And that has the odor of antiquity about it doesn’t it? Old stuff. How
old would you say you feel right now?
Participant: About 9.
Therapist: And feeling that whatever you do is wrong. What else?
Participant: Are you just trying to blow my mind?
Therapist: Well, I know both you and I have a mind in the room so there are actually four
of us in here. It is really fine if your mind stays around -- they seem to do that
and I imagine mine isn’t leaving -- it is just that I want to talk with the human in
the room, not just with your mental machinery. We can notice what our minds
have to say without disappearing into them. This therapy is not a belief system or
a new philosophy -- you’ve already got plenty of those.
Participant: (long pause). I don’t know what to say. As soon as I start to think or say
anything I think “there I go again” and then another thought shows up.
Therapist: Neat. Stay with that experience for a bit.

Additional metaphor

The Tug-of-War with a Monster Metaphor

This situation is like being in a tug-of-war with a monster. It is big, ugly, and
very strong. In between you and the monster is a pit, and as far as you can tell, it is
bottomless. If you lose this tug-of-war, you will fall into this pit and will be destroyed.
So you pull and pull, but the harder you pull, it seems the harder the monster pulls, and it
appears that you are edging closer and closer to the pit. The hardest thing to see is that
your job here is not to win the tug-of-war. Your job is to drop the rope.
Sometimes clients ask, “How do I do that?” after this metaphor. It is best not to
answer firmly at this point. The therapist can say something like: “Well, I don’t know.
But the first step is really to see that the tug-of-war can’t be won... and that it doesn’t
need to be.

It is sometimes helpful to give the client a larger framework for the skill you are
hinting at and to provide some reasons why you are seeming to be evasive. If the person
has a history with sports, playing musical instruments, or other fine motor skills, these
can be used as metaphors to explain the situation.

The client might feel as though he or she has a strategy to control the obsession or
the compulsion. The client might say “so what should I do this week.” The therapist
should be careful to not let the client use the new information as part of the control
strategy. The client can be told that nothing new needs to be done yet. That he or she can
work on putting the shovel down and paying attention to all the different ways that he or
she digs. The following homework assists in that.

Homework 2
What is digging for you?

“One thing you can do between now and when we get back together is to try to
become aware of how you carry this struggle out in your daily life. See if you can
just notice all the things you normally do; all the ways you dig. Getting a sense of
what digging is for you is important because, even if you put down the shovel,
 you will probably find that old habits are so strong that the shovel is back in your
hands only instants later. So we will have to drop the shovel many, many times.
You might even make a list that we can look at when we get back together: all the
things you have been doing to moderate, regulate, and solve this problem.
Distraction, self-blame, talking yourself out of it, avoiding situations, and so on.
I’m not asking you to change these actions; just try to observe how and when they
show up.”

Sessions 3 & 4

Must Read:
ACT book: Chapter 5. Control is the Problem, not the Solution
ACT book: Chapter 6. Building Acceptance by Defusing Language

The intended function of session one and two was to “crack” the clients control
agenda. The client was likely following a verbal rule that he or she cannot experience the
obsession and that a particular set of behaviors (compulsion) would decrease that feeling.
The rule was directly challenged in session and experientially. The following two
sessions continues to challenge that rule, but also exposes the paradoxical affects of
attempts to control. Engaging in the compulsion to decrease the obsession might actually
be making the obsession stronger rather than weaker, and that possibly the most useful
way to handle the obsession is to stop fighting with it.

1. Assess functioning
2. Review reactions to last session
3. Review homework
4. Introduce control as the problem
5. Introduce willingness/acceptance
6. Behavioral commitment
7. Homework

1. Assess functioning
The therapist should assess any changes in the client’s environment and for
changes in the client’s OCD such as frequency, intensity, or disturbance caused by the
OCD. Assess if the client is doing anything differently as a result of the therapy.

2. Review reactions to last session

Give the client an opportunity to express any reactions to the previous sessions.
Be especially aware of comments that indicate that the client is using the material
presented in session as ways to control the obsession.

3. Review homework
Go over all the different ways that the client tries to control his or her obsessions.
This can serve as a review of Creative Hopelessness. The therapist should pay attention
to how attached to the client is to controlling his or her obsessions. If the client is still
very attached to his or her control agenda review Creative Hopelessness. During session
4 the therapist should link in Control as the Problem and Willingness/Acceptance into the
review. Creative Hopelessness, Control as the Problem, and Acceptance/Willingness are
interrelated, therefore they can easily be integrated when discussing the client’s struggle
with his or her obsessions.

4. Introduce Control as the Problem

The function of control as the problem is to help the client experience the
paradoxical affects of his or her attempts to control the obsessions. In most cases attempts
at controlling obsessions not only does not work, but it increases the importance of the
obsession. It makes it bigger rather than smaller. If the client can be brought in touch
with this, then the client will be more likely to give up the control agenda and try
something different. Basically, it is making the compulsion feel less useful.

Therapist: So what else did you notice?

Client: Well, when I was about to go into the department meeting I noticed checking
several times to see if I still had my wallet. I knew it was there - it is always there
- but I have these fears that I could have dropped it somewhere.
Therapist: What do you think the checking was in the service of?
Client: To calm that uncomfortable feeling that I get.
Therapist: What else?
At this point, no big deal is made of any of this - it is touched on, clarified,
formulated in fairly common-sense terms, and then just left on the shelf. But this is
important, because the immediate goal of the next phase is to gather this set of events into
a single class: conscious, deliberate, purposeful control. The monster’s name is
CONTROL. It’s manifestation is ESCAPE and AVOIDANCE.

Therapist: OK. I think I understand what you have been doing? Any others that you
noticed.
Client: No. That is about it.
Therapist: OK. Actually, there are probably a lot of others that will pop up as we
proceed, but it is not important at this point that we know everyone. We just need
to know enough to have a sense of the range of things involved. What I want to do
today is to try to get a clearer sense of this set of things - I want to have us get
clearer about what digging even is anyway. And I want to give it a name - not to
figure it out intellectually but just to have a way of talking about it in here.
Client: You want us to have a name for the theme.
Therapist: Right. You know I was saying last time that most of what you having been
doing is quite logical, sensible, and reasonable. The outcome isn’t maybe, but
really it seems to me that you’ve done pretty much the normal thing. And all
these digging moves you just listed. Aren’t they the kinds of things people do?
Client: Maybe not normal people, but people like me sure do. You know that support
group I go to every month? It is almost laughable. Every single person in there
has the same story. I mean you can tell even before they open their mouth what
the story will be.
Therapist: Exactly. This is how the system works. Consider this as a possibility. It is
similar because what you are doing is what we are all trained to do. It’s just that
 it doesn’t work here. Human language has given us a tremendous advantage as a
species because it allows us to break things down into parts, to formulate plan, to
construct futures we have never experienced before, and to plan action. And it
works pretty well. If we look just at the 95% of our existence that involves what
goes on outside the skin, it works great. Look at all the things the rest of creation
is dealing with and you’ll see we do pretty well. Just look around this room.
Almost everything we see in here wouldn’t be here without human language and
human rationality. The plastic chair. The lights. The heating duct. Our clothes.
That computer. And so on. So we are warm, it won’t rain on us, we have light -
with regard to the stuff non-humans are struggling with we pretty much have it
made. You give a dog or a cat all this stuff - warmth, shelter, food, social
simulation - and they are about as happy as they know to be.
Client: What’s your point?
Therapist: Well, I’m just saying that really, really important things - important to us as a
species competing with other life forms on this planet - have been done with
human language. There is an operating rule: if you don’t like something, figure
out how to get rid of it and do so. And that rule works great in 95% of our life.
But not in the world inside the skin. That last 5%. It is a pretty important 5%
because it is where satisfaction lies, but it is only a small proportion of our total
lives. But suppose that same rule worked just terribly in that last 5%. In your
experience, not in your logical mind, check and see if it isn’t so: in the world
inside the skin, the rule actually is, if you aren’t willing to have it, you’ve got it.
Client: If I’m not willing to have it, I’ve got it...
Therapist: Weird, huh? Just to put a name on it, let me say it this way: in the outside
world, conscious, deliberate, purposeful control works great. Figure out how to
get rid of what we want to get rid of and do it. But in the areas of consciousness,
history, self, emotions, thoughts, feelings, behavioral predispositions, memories,
attitudes, bodily sensations, and so on, it often isn’t helpful. In these situations,
the solution isn’t deliberate control, the problem is control. If you try to avoid
your own history and what it brings automatically into the situation you are in an
unwinnable struggle. Dig, dig, dig.

“If you aren’t willing to have it, you’ve got it.”

Therapist: Notice there is a paradox with this. Suppose it really is true that “if you are
not willing to have it, you’ve got it.” What could you do with such knowledge.
Now let’s see ... “ah, I want to get rid of it but if you are not willing to have it,
you’ve got it. So, therefore, if I am willing to have it, I’ll get rid of it! That’s it!
If I am willing to have it, I’ll get rid of it! But if I am willing to have it in order to
get rid of it, then I’m not willing to have it and I have it again.” So you can’t trick
yourself. “If you are not willing to have it, you’ve got it” can’t be used for the old
agenda. You can’t dig with it ... or at least if you do, nothing positive or different
will happen.

It is generally useful to talk about client’s struggle with his or her obsessions. For
example, you might say something like: “When your obsession shows up, what do you do
with it? Do you try to get rid of it? Is it possible that struggling to get rid of your
obsession is itself very discomfort provoking? Eventually you get through it, and it looks
as if the reason you got through it was because you were struggling with it, but doesn’t
that seem a little bit fishy? If that were the case, then why is the discomfort you have still
hanging around? Clearly, struggling doesn’t solve the confusion.” Try to relate these
control efforts to the client’s specific issues.

Isn’t you Obsession like a kid in an Grocery Store

Therapist: Do you have any children?

Client: Yes two daughters.
Therapist: Did you ever take them into a grocery store when they were young.
Client: Yes.
Therapist: What happens when they pass the candy or toy isle?
Client: They always want something.
Therapist: Yes. All kids do. And they usually say something like. “Can I get one of
these.” And you have to make a decision. Do you give in or not? Because if you do not
you know what is going to happen. Your daughter will ask a little louder. And if you say
no she will likely get louder.
Client: Yep. And it just keeps going.
Therapist: Right. And you can either quite the kid with a toy or candy or let the child cry
and have everyone look at you. But what is the problem with giving in.
Client: It teaches the kid they can have whatever they want by crying.
Therapist. Exactly! Plus it teaches the kid how loud to get before you give in. Does you
struggle with your obsession feel at all like this? Is shows up and you decide not to give
in, but then it gets louder and louder until you give in.
Client: Totally!
Therapist: What if you obsession is like your daughter in a grocery store and you are
teaching it how loud it needs to get. So in an attempt to control it you are teaching it how
loud to get. It could actually be having the opposite effect than you want.

It can be helpful to give clients some literal understanding of how they first
learned conscious control and avoidance as applied to private events. This is part of the
general effort to illuminate the spectacular lack of success of control as applied to private
events, without making the client feel stupid for buying into this agenda; which is, after
all, spectacularly successful in other domains (such as the physical world) and ubiquitous.

Introduce the ways emotional control is established. These four factors seem to
glue deliberate control into the domain of private events:

1) It works in other areas of your life

2) You were told it should work here (e.g., “Don’t be afraid...”)
3) It seemed to work for other people around you (e.g., “Daddy isn’t scared...”)
4) It even appeared to work here.
 These means of establishing the control agenda often lead people to present
themselves in ways that are inconsistent with their experience of themselves.
Metaphorically, everyone walks around looking like John Wayne. It is sometimes useful
to tell the client that among all the clients you have seen, you have never met John
Wayne. When the door to the therapy room closes, we find that the big strong looking
folks are just as scared as the rest of us. Will I be liked? Will I fit in? Will I measure
up? Point out that even John Wayne isn’t John Wayne. Empathize with the client if they
are able to get present to the burden of the pretend game of total emotional and cognitive
control.

It is what well all do

Therapist: This is sort of a funny way of looking at your problem isn’t it? I don’t think
there is anything odd about what you have been doing. It is what we all do. When we
don’t like things we change them. Like I said earlier it works on the outside world, we
were taught to do it, and it does sometimes work immediately, but not in the long run.
You are in a special position where you can see how things actually work. Maybe
conscious, deliberate control strategies applied to your obsessions are not very effective. I
have some exercises that help show this.

The following exercises help the client experience the unworkability of control of the
obsessions.

The Polygraph Metaphor

"Suppose I had you hooked up to the best polygraph machine that's ever been
built. This is a perfect machine, the most sensitive ever made. When you are all wired up
to it, there is no way you can be aroused or anxious without the machine knowing it. So I
tell you that you have a very simple task here: all you have to do is stay relaxed. If you
get the least bit anxious, however, I will know it. I know you want to try hard, but I want
to give you an extra incentive, so I also have a .44 Magnum which I'll hold to your head.
If you just stay relaxed, I won't blow your brains out, but if you get nervous (and I'll
know it because you're wired up to this perfect machine), I'm going to have to kill you.
Your brains will be all over the walls. So, just relax! ... What do you think would happen?
Guess what you'd get? Bam! How could it work otherwise? The tiniest bit of anxiety
would be terrifying. You'd be going "Oh, my God! I'm getting anxious! Here it comes!"
BAM! You're dead meat. How could it work otherwise?"

This metaphor can be used to draw out several paradoxical aspects of the control
and avoidance of obsession. As the following scripts suggest, modifying the language
within the metaphor keeps the impact of the exercise intact while allowing the client's
different issues to be addressed.
1. The contrast between behavior that can be controlled and behavior that is not
regulated very successfully by verbal rules.
 Think about this. If I told you, "vacuum up the floor or I'll shoot you," you'd
vacuum the floor. If I said "paint the house or I'll shoot" you'd be painting. That's how the
world outside the skin works. But if I simply say, "Relax, or I'll shoot you" not only will
it not work, but it's the other way around. The very fact that I would ask you to do this
would make you damn nervous.
2. How this metaphor maps on to the client's situation.
Now, you have the perfect polygraph machine already hooked up to you: it's your
own nervous system. It is better than any machine humans have ever made. You can't
really feel something and not have your nervous system in contact with it, almost by
definition. And you've got something pointed at you that is more powerful and more
threatening than any gun--your own self-esteem, self-worth, the workability of your life.
So you actually are in a situation very much like this. You're holding the gun to your
head and saying, "Relax!" So guess what you get? BAM!

Other metaphors are also useful to deal with positive emotions. These need to be
dealt with because often the client has the idea that even if negative emotions can’t be
controlled, it is quite possible to control positive emotions, and thus maybe by putting
positive emotions into the situation, the negative emotions will disappear.

The Fall in Love Metaphor

“But it’s not just negative emotions. Here’s a test. I come to you and say, ‘See
that person? If you fall in love with that person in 2 days, I’ll give you 10 million
dollars.’ Could you do it? What if you came back to me in 2 days and said, ‘I did it.’
And then I said, ‘Sorry, it was just a trick. I don’t have 10 million dollars.’ What are you
going to do next? In other words, it’s not just getting rid of negative emotions that is
difficult, but it is equally difficult to create them, even ones you like, in any kind of
predictable, systematic, controllable ways.

In this phase of ACT we are trying to show how weak deliberate control is when
applied to the world of private events. Depending on what the client is struggling with, it
might be helpful to develop this point with regard to thoughts, memories, or other
domains of psychological events. Here is one for thoughts, for example, that is usually
helpful and is especially so if the client is dealing with obsessive thoughts or ruminations.

The Jelly Donut Metaphor

It’s not just emotions, either. Let’s look at thoughts. Suppose I tell you right now
that I don’t want you to think about... See? I can’t even tell you because you know what
would happen. Well, OK. Let’s see. Don’t think of... warm jelly donuts. Don’t think of
them. Don’t think of how they smell when they first come out of the oven. Don’t think
of that! The taste of the jelly when you bite into the donut as the jelly squishes out the
opposite side into your lap through the wax paper. Don’t think of that! And the white
flaky frosting on the top on the round, soft shape? DON’T THINK ABOUT ANY OF
THIS!
 For clients with OCD, this issue should be related to their struggle with their
obsessions. What their mind tells them is that if they cannot make their obsession go
away, or at least lessen, they will always have OCD. Always ask the client whether this
strategy has worked. They will usually say that it has worked in a limited sense.
However, it cannot have worked in a real, lasting, fundamental sense, or else the client
would not be in treatment. It is important to validate the incredible effort the client has
invested in controlling urges.
The therapist should also explore the client’s actual experience with suppressing
the obsession, to see if it may not be a possibility that trying to suppress them may
actually be increasing them. The therapist need not insist that this is so. Tentativeness
creates less resistance. We might say something like: “Is it possible that this is so?” We
also point out that in other areas of their life where they have invested this much effort
they have succeeded in making fundamental changes. We ask if it doesn’t seem a bit
fishy that this does not seem to have worked out here. Another way to introduce the
possibility is to ask the client: “In your experience, have your urges to use gone up or
down over the years? Are they better or worse than they were 5 years ago or 10?”

Therapist: Does your struggle with your obsessions seem like it has gotten easier over the
last 5-10 years or more difficult?
Client: It is a full time job trying to control them.
Therapist: How good a job are you doing? Have you gotten better at it or are you finding
that you need to work more and more.
Client: I am not getting any better.
Therapist: Are you getting tired and worn out from all this work?
Client: Yes. Definitely!

Clients as severe as the ones being seen in this project will certainly have, in their
own experience, the seeds of this fact. It is important that they make contact with the
paradox of control efforts in their experience, rather than as a compellingly logical
argument. The client knows quite well that emotional control and avoidance haven’t
worked. What clients have usually not faced is that it can’t work. These various
metaphors expose the client to the fundamental unworkability of this system of
deliberate, conscious, purposeful (i.e., verbally regulated) control as applied to private
events.

The Cost of Unwillingness: Clean And Dirty Feelings

It can be helpful at this point to connect variations in willingness and control to
the sense of trauma that clients experience when they attempt to control or eliminate
unpleasant experiences, only to discover that they have been amplified and now are
seemingly "out of control". The following monologue demonstrates how the ACT
therapist introduces the concept of clean and dirty feeling.
"We should try to distinguish "clean" and "dirty" discomfort. The discomfort that
life just dishes up--that comes and goes as a result of just living your life--that is "clean"
discomfort. Sometimes it will be high, or it will be low, because of your history, the
environmental circumstances in which you find yourself, etc. The "clean" discomfort is
what you can't get rid of by trying to control it. "Dirty" discomfort, on the other hand, is
emotional discomfort and disturbing thoughts actually created by your effort to control
your feelings. As a result of running away, whole new sets of bad feelings have shown
up. That may be a big part of why you are here. That extra discomfort--discomfort over
discomfort--we can call "dirty discomfort" and once willingness is high, and control is
low, it kind of falls out of the picture and you're left with only the "clean" kind. You don't
know how much discomfort you'll have left in any given situation once only "clean"
discomfort is there. Be very clear I'm not saying that discomfort will go down. What I am
saying is that if you give up on the effort to manipulate your discomfort, then over time it
will assume the level that is dictated by your actual history. No more. No less".

5. Acceptance/Willingness

The Alternative to Control: Willingness

The whole point of ACT is stated in its name: Acceptance and Commitment. This
is another way of saying "get present and move ahead" or "start from where you are and
go where you choose to go." Up to this point, therapy has focused on undermining the
literal control agenda that tells clients that they can only move ahead after they first start
from somewhere else. It helps to begin to point to the alternative. The therapist should
use the word "willingness" at this point in therapy because "acceptance" is often
interpreted by the client to mean "toleration," which is an entirely different thing, or
"resignation," which the client may see as defeat.

The Two Scales Metaphor is a core ACT intervention designed to introduce the concept
of willingness and its relationship to psychological distress.

"Imagine there are two scales, like the volume and balance knobs on a stereo. One
is right out here in front of us and it is called "Anxiety" [Use labels that fit the client's
situation, if anxiety does not, such as "Anger, guilt, disturbing thoughts, worry," etc. It
may also help to move ones hand as if it is moving up and down a numerical scale]. It can
go from 0 to 10. In the posture you're in, what brought you in here, was this: "This
anxiety is too high." It's way up here and I want it down here and I want you, the
therapist, to help me do that, please. In other words you have been trying to pull the
pointer down on this scale [the therapist can use the other hand to pull down
unsuccessfully on the anxiety hand]. But now there's also another scale. It's been hidden.
It is hard to see. This other scale can also go from 0 to 10. [move the other hand up and
down behind your head so you can't see it] What we have been doing is gradually
preparing the way so that we can see this other scale. We've been bringing it around to
look at it. [move the other hand around in front] It is really the more important of the two,
because it is this one that makes the difference and it is the only one that you can control.
This second scale is called "Willingness." It refers to how open you are to experiencing
your own experience when you experience it--without trying to manipulate it, avoid it,
escape it, change it, and so on. When Anxiety [or discomfort, depression, unpleasant
memories, obsessive thoughts, etc.--use a name that fits the client's struggle] is up here at
10, and you're trying hard to control this anxiety, make it go down, make it go away, then
you're unwilling to feel this anxiety. In other words, the Willingness scale is down at 0.
But that is a terrible combination. It's like a ratchet or something. You know how a
ratchet wrench works? When you have a ratchet set one way no matter how you turn the
handle on the wrench it can only tighten the bolt. It's like that. When anxiety is high and
willingness is low, the ratchet is in and anxiety can't go down. That's because if you are
really, really unwilling to have anxiety then anxiety is something to be anxious about. It's
as if when anxiety is high, and willingness drops down, the anxiety kind of locks into
place. You turn the ratchet and no matter what you do with that tool, it drives it in tighter.
So, what we need to do in this therapy is shift our focus from the anxiety scale to the
willingness scale. You've been trying to control Mr. Anxiety for a long time, and it just
doesn't work. It's not that you weren't clever enough; it simply doesn't work. Instead of
doing that, we will turn our focus to the willingness scale. Unlike the anxiety scale, which
you can't move around at will, the willingness scale is something you can set anywhere. It
is not a reaction--not a feeling or a thought--it is a choice. You've had it set low. You
came in here with it set low--in fact coming in here at all may initially have been a
reflection of its low setting. What we need to do is get it set high. If you do this, if you set
willingness high, I can guarantee you what will happen to anxiety. I'll tell you exactly
what will happen and you can hold me to this as a solemn promise. If you stop trying to
control anxiety, your anxiety will be low ...[pause] or ... it will be high. I promise you!
Swear. Hold me to it. And when it is low, it will be low, until it's not low and then it will
be high. And when it is high it will be high until it isn't high anymore. Then it will be low
again. ... I'm not teasing you. There just aren't good words for what it is like to have the
willingness scale set high--these strange words are as close as I can get. I can say one
thing for sure, though, and your experience says the same thing--if you want to know for
sure where the anxiety scale will be, then there is something you can do. Just set
willingness very, very low and sooner or later when anxiety starts up the ratchet will lock
in and you will have plenty of anxiety. It will be very predictable. All in the name of
getting it low. If you move the willingness scale up, then anxiety is free to move.
Sometimes it will be low, and sometimes it will be high, and in both cases you will keep
out of a useless and traumatic struggle that can only lead in one direction."

At this point, the client will not know exactly what willingness is. Even though
the therapist has made it clear that it is not a feeling or a thought, the client will look for
willingness of exactly this kind: a feeling of willingness or a belief that is helpful. The
client may also believe that the therapist is saying to ignore or tolerate discomfort. It is
essential that the therapist be on the lookout for and detect these misunderstandings, as is
demonstrated in the following dialogue:

Client: "I'm not really sure I know what willingness is."

Therapist: "And you don't need to right now. Mostly right now I'm just putting an
alternative on the table, but I don't expect you to go out and hit home runs just
because of a little talk. It will take some experience of actually doing it. It is not a
verbal skill."
Client: "I understand in the abstract, but I can't imagine actually being willing to feel the
obsession.”
Therapist: "And that is exactly some of the verbal glue that your mind has given you to
keep the scale down at zero. The fantasy has been that if you have willingness
down at zero, anxiety will go down. If you demand that it go away, it will. That is
 what your mind says, and it keeps holding out for that effect. Yet that is not what
your experience tells you, is it?. That is not how it actually works. It says the
exact opposite, right? It is almost as if you are being victimized by your feelings."
Client: "I do feel that way. It is almost a family tradition. My mother used to say "that's
what happens to us. We get screwed in the end." She was always playing the
victim. I guess I learned it early.
Therapist: "It wouldn't be so bad except that this victim stuff doesn't do anything positive.
It just makes your feelings your own enemy and makes life unlivable. Because no
matter how hard you play victim, your own anxiety doesn't care. Remember I was
talking about response-ability. Well in this metaphor, you do have an ability to
respond--it's just only on the Willingness scale, not on the Anxiety scale. If you
were in control, you would have set this discomfort at 0, and it wouldn't be here,
right? Who wouldn't have? If we had our way we'd all be swimming in treacle and
sugar cubes all day long. But suppose life is giving you this choice: you can
choose to try to control what you feel and lose control over your life, or let go of
control over discomfort and get control over your life. Which do you choose?"
Client: "I'd rather be in control of my life--I've always thought I couldn't do that unless
anxiety went away first."
Therapist: "Exactly. That is how our minds are trained to think. So what we need to learn
is where control works and where it doesn't; never mind what your mind tells,
your experience tells you... It doesn't work over here with the emotional
discomfort and disturbing thoughts knob. However, over here on the Willingness
knob--who sets this one?"
Client: "I do."
Therapist: "Only you. Only you. I can make you feel things--I can't make you stay open
or not to what you have. That is up to you. It is the one thing that always is up to
you."

After introducing willingness as the alternative to control, it is important to

explain to the client that willingness is not something that can be done directly:

“So, we know that the alternative to control is willingness. Unfortunately,

practicing willingness is not something that can be done directly. Especially from where
you are... It wouldn’t be safe to for me to ask you to just start being completely willing to
experience all the painful things you’ve been struggling with all this time without first
putting something else into place. So what we need to do is to find a safe place from
which you can choose to experience your thoughts and feelings. And this might be more
difficult than you might think, because there are actually four of us in the room right
now: me, you, my mind, and your mind. And your mind is going to fight this
willingness move. So let’s see if we can find a new context where willingness is an
option.”

6. Behavioral commitments

At this point the client will likely be interested in trying something different. The
therapist should suggest practicing willingness. Willingness exercises are about
practicing increasing the client’s willingness to have the obsession. Willingness exercises
in the treatment of OCD should not be limited by the client’s emotions. For example the
client can agree not to do the compulsion from 8:00-9:00, or to not do the compulsion
more than 20 times per day if it is one that they can easily count. Willingness exercises
should not involve imprecise commitments such as being more willing this week. What
we are looking for are good quality commitments, not huge ones that the client does not
keep.
These types of willingness exercises should be done as homework after each
session for the remaining sessions. These exercises are different than exposure in CBT-
type treatments. In CBT they are about decreasing the obsessions. In ACT they are about
increasing ones willingness to experience unpleasant private events. These willingness
exercises should be increased each week as the client’s repertoire to experience the
obsession without doing the compulsion increases. This is a very important part of the
treatment because it gives the client real-life experiences with the material that is being
presented in session. Also, it provides the material for the following sessions. The client
will very likely experience difficulties with the obsession between sessions which can be
used as the material for the treatment.

Characteristics of a Commitment
Tell client that there is an issue that underlies the question of willingness, and that
issue is, Can you make a commitment and keep to it? Is it possible for you to say, “It
would work for me in my life to do this, and therefore, I’m doing it.” And then do it. And
if you slip, or fail at the attempt, turn right around and do it again. Is commitment, which
is a choice, a possibility, not only in the area of emotional discomfort and disturbing
thoughts, but in other areas of life as well? Tell the client that we are not talking about
living up to someone else’s standards (e.g., church, mom, husband, etc.), but rather
talking about living up to any standards. We are also not talking about something that
will necessarily feel good. If feelings or thoughts are seen to be the reason for making
decisions, then keeping a commitment becomes impossible, because you can’t control
your thoughts and feelings. Discuss how a commitment may define a set of situations or
circumstances in which the commitment applies, or when a behavioral exception will be
made (for example, a commitment to not eat dessert for the next six months may include
the exception that when I’m at mom’s house on my birthday, I will eat it.) Point out also
that a commitment should not be made unless one is 100% sure you intend to keep it, and
it will happen that you won’t be able to keep it always. The question is, Are you willing
to make a commitment, knowing that you’re not going to always live up to it; are you
willing to feel what you’re going to feel when you fail to keep your commitments and
still make the commitment?

7. Homework
In addition to making behavior commitments each week the client should be
assigned the following homework. These assist the client in contacting the material
presented in session, outside of session.

Homework 3
Daily Willingness Diary

Please complete this form after your obsession occurs. This form need not be completed
after every obsession. The form only needs to be completed a couple times. Please bring
your response to the following session.

Day What was the What were What were What were What did you
experience? your feelings your thoughts your bodily do to handle
while it was while it was sensations your feelings,
happening? happening? while it was thoughts, or
happening? bodily
sensations?
Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Homework 4
CLEAN AND DIRTY DISCOMFORT DIARY

Instructions: Each time you run into a situation where you feel “stuck” or that you are
struggling with your obsession please complete each column below.

Situation (Clean Stuff) Suffering (Dirty Stuff) New Suffering

My First Level What I Did
Reactions About My
Reactions
What happened What obsession Rate your Did I struggle Rate your new
to start this? immediately immediate with the suffering level
“showed up” distress level on obsession? Did on the same 1-
describe its a 1-100 scale (1 I criticize 100 scale
thoughts, = no suffering, myself? Did I
feelings, or 100 = extreme try to shove my
physical suffering) reactions back
sensations? in, or pretend
they weren’t
there?

Sessions 5& 6.

Must read:
ACT book. Chapter 7. Discovering Self, Defusing Self

Sessions 5 & 6
1. Assess functioning
2. Review experiences from last session
3. Review homework and behavioral commitment
4. Introduce self as context & defusion
5. Introduce defusion
6. Homework
7. Behavioral Commitment exercise
1. Assess functioning
The therapist should assess any changes in the client’s environment and for
changes in the client’s OCD such as frequency, intensity, or disturbance caused by the
OCD. Assess if the client is doing anything differently as a result of the therapy.

2. Review reactions to last session

Give the client an opportunity to express any reactions to the previous sessions.
Be especially aware of comments that indicate that the client is using the material
presented in session as ways to control the obsession. This information will provide
information as to which areas of ACT need to be readdressed.

3. Review homework
Review the client’s experiences associated with the homework. The client’s
experiences from the homework should be integrated into the therapy sessions.

4. Introduce self as context and Defusion

Self as context in the treatment of OCD involves being able to treat ones private
events as nothing more than any other every day event, to treat a thought as a thought, a
feeling as a feeling, and sensations as sensations, nothing more. Individuals with OCD
have a very difficult time not giving into their obsessions because they feel like they are
real events. The client might encounter this when engaging in the willingness exercises in
the past two sessions. If the client has a hard time creating willingness to experience the
obsession without responding to it, use that as the place to introduce self as context. Self
as context is not something that can be described vocally; it is a psychological posture
that is best learned through practice and experience.
Defusion involves increasing the client’s behavioral repertoire with regard to the
obsession. When the client experiences an obsession the only move in his or her
repertoire is to escape it. The same goes for situations that elicit the obsession, the only
move that the client has is to avoid the situation. Both of these behaviors are useful, but
they can be problematic when they are the only ways that the client responds to the
situation. Defusion exercises help the client interact with the obsession in different ways.
Interacting with the obsession in different ways increases the client’s behavioral
repertoire with regard to the obsession. Additionally, when the obsession is interacted
with in a variety of ways its believability decreases. Thus, the obsession may occur at the
same rate, but it occurs as something different. It is not as threatening.

What Are The Numbers Exercise

Many clients with OCD report that many situations trigger the obsession. This can
be troublesome for the client because these events are often not within the client’s
control. This exercise helps the client see the futility of control.

Therapist: "Suppose I came up to you and said: I'm going to give you three numbers to
remember. It is very important that you remember them, because several years
from now I'm going to tap you on the shoulder and ask "what are the numbers?" If
you can answer, I'll give you a million dollars. So remember, this is important.
 You can't forget these things. They're worth a million bucks. OK. Here are the
three numbers: Ready? .... 1, ... 2, ... 3. Now ... what are the numbers?"
Client: "1, 2, 3."
Therapist: "Good. Now don't forget them. If you do, it'll cost you a lot. What are they?"
Client: (laughs) "Still 1, 2, 3."
Therapist: "Super. Do you think you'll be able to remember them?"
Client: "I suppose so. If I really believed you I would."
Therapist: "Then believe me. A million dollars. What are the numbers?"
Client: "1, 2, 3."
Therapist: "Right. Now if you really did believe me (actually I lied) it's quite likely that
you might remember these silly numbers for a long time."
Client: "Sure."
Therapist: "But isn't that ridiculous? I mean, just because some smart-ass therapist wants
to make a point here, you might go around for the rest of your life with "1, 2, 3"
stuck in your head. For no reason that has anything to do with you. Just an
accident, really. The luck of the draw. You've got me as a therapist, and next thing
you know you have numbers rolling around in your head for God knows how
long. What are the numbers?"
Client: "1, 2, 3."
Therapist: "Right. And once they are in your head, they aren't leaving. Our nervous
system works by addition, not by subtraction. Once stuff goes in, it's in. Check
this out. What if I say to you, it's very important that you have the experience that
the numbers are not 1, 2, 3. OK? So I'm going to ask you about the numbers and I
want you to answer in a way that has absolutely nothing to do with 1, 2, 3. OK?
Now, what are the numbers?"
Client: "4, 5, 6."
Therapist: "And did you do what I asked you?"
Client: I thought "4, 5, 6" and I said them."
Therapist: "And did that meet the goal I set? Let me ask it this way: How do you know 4,
5, 6, is a good answer."
Client: (chuckles) "Because they aren't 1, 2, 3."
Therapist: "Exactly! So 4, 5, 6 still has to do with 1, 2, 3 and I asked you not to do that.
So let's do it again: Think of anything except 1, 2, 3--make sure your answer is
absolutely unconnected to 1, 2, 3."
Client: "I can't do it."
Therapist: "Me neither. The nervous system works only by addition--unless you get a
lobotomy or something. 4, 5, 6 is just adding to 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3 is in there and these
numbers aren't leaving. When you're 80 years old, I could walk up to you and say,
"What are the numbers?" and you might actually say "1, 2, 3" simply because
some dope told you to remember them! But it isn't just 1, 2, 3. You've got all
kinds of people telling you all kinds of things. Your mind has been programmed
by all kinds of experiences. [add a few relevant to the client, such as 'So you think
'I'm bad' or you think 'I don't fit in.'] But how do you know that this isn't just
another example of 1, 2, 3? Don't you sometimes even notice that these thoughts
are in your parents’ voices or are connected to things people told you?" If you are
nothing more than your reactions, you are in trouble. Because you didn't choose
 what they would be, you can't control what shows up, and you have all kinds of
reactions that are silly, prejudiced, mean, loathsome, scary, and so on. You'll
never be able to win at this game."
Seeing that reactions are programmed undermines both the credibility of engaging
in a successful struggle against undesirable psychological content (because these
reactions are automatic conditioned responses) and the need for this struggle (since they
do not mean what they say they mean). "I'm bad" is not inherently any more meaningful
than "1, 2, 3."

Chessboard Metaphor
The Chessboard metaphor is a central ACT intervention and another way to
connect the client to the distinction between content and the observing self.

"It's as if there is a chess board that goes out infinitely in all directions. It's covered with
different colored pieces, black pieces and white pieces. They work together in teams, like
in chess--the white pieces fight against the black pieces. You can think of your thoughts
and feelings and beliefs as these pieces; they sort of hang out together in teams, too. For
example, "bad" feelings (like anxiety, depression, resentment) hang out with "bad"
thoughts and "bad" memories. Same thing with the "good" ones. So it seems that the way
the game is played is that we select which side we want to win. We put the "good" pieces
(like thoughts that are self-confident, feelings of being in control, etc.) on one side, and
the "bad" pieces on the other. Then we get up on the back of the white queen and ride to
battle, fighting to win the war against anxiety, depression, thoughts about using drugs,
whatever. It's a war game. But there's a logical problem here, and that is that from this
posture, huge portions of yourself are your own enemy. In other words, if you need to be
in this war, there is something wrong with you. And since it appears that you're on the
same level as these pieces, they can be as big or even bigger than you are, even though
these pieces are in you. So somehow, even though it is not logical, the more you fight the
bigger they get. If it is true that "if you are not willing to have it, you've got it," then as
you fight them they get more central to your life, more habitual, more dominating, and
more linked to every area of living. The logical idea is that you will knock enough of
them off the board so that you eventually dominate them--except your experience tells
you that the exact opposite happens. Apparently, the black pieces can't be deliberately
knocked off the board. So the battle goes on. You feel hopeless, you have a sense that
you can't win, and yet you can't stop fighting. If you're on the back of that white horse,
fighting is the only choice you have because the black pieces seem life threatening. Yet
living in a war zone is a miserable way to live.
As the client connects to this metaphor, it can be turned to the issue of the self.

Therapist: Now, let me ask you to think about this carefully. In this metaphor, suppose
you aren't the chess pieces. Who are you?
Client: Am I the player?
Therapist: That's exactly what you've been trying to be, so that is an old idea. The player
has a big investment in how this war turns out. Besides, who are you playing
against? Some other player? So suppose you're not that either.
Client: …. Am I the board?
Therapist: It's useful to look at it that way. Without a board, these pieces have no place to
be. The board holds them. Like what would happen to your thoughts if you
weren't there to be aware that you thought them? The pieces need you. They
cannot exist without you, but you contain them, they don't contain you. Notice
that if you're the pieces, the game is very important; you've got to win, your life
depends on it. But if you're the board, it doesn't matter if the war stops or not. The
game may go on, but it doesn't make any difference to the board. As the board,
you can see all the pieces, you can hold them, you are in intimate contact with
them and you can watch the war being played out on your consciousness, but it
doesn't matter. It takes no effort.

The chessboard metaphor is often physically acted out in therapy. For example, a
piece of cardboard is placed on the floor and various attractive and ugly things are put on
top (e.g., cigarette butts, pictures). The client may be asked to notice that the board exerts
no effort to hold the pieces (a metaphor for the lack of effort that is needed in willingness,
with the physical act of the board holding things as a metaphor for willingness). The
client may be asked to notice that at board level only two things can be done: hold the
pieces and move them all in a direction. We cannot move specific pieces without
abandoning board-level. Notice also that the board is in more direct contact with the
pieces than the pieces are to each other--so willingness is not about detachment or
dissociation. Rather, when we "buy" a thought or struggle with an emotion we go up to
piece level and at that level, other pieces, while scary, are not genuinely being touched at
all.
Once the client has been introduced to the metaphor, it is useful to reinvigorate it
periodically by simply asking the client, "are you at the piece level or at the board level
right now"? All the arguments, reasons, and so on that the client brings in are all
examples of "pieces" and thus this metaphor can help defuse the client from such
reactions. The concept of "board level" can be used frequently to connote a stance in
which the client is looking at psychological content, rather than looking from
psychological content. The point is that thoughts, feelings, sensations, emotions,
memories and so on are pieces: they are not you. This is immediately experientially
available, but the fusion with psychological content can overwhelm this awareness.
Metaphors such as the chessboard metaphor help make the issue concrete.

Useful exercises:
The following exercise often proves to be a powerful experience for clients. They
often report a strong sense of peace. It should be pointed out that the exercise is not
intended as a method for making “bad” thoughts and feelings go away. Rather, if done
properly, the exercise allows the client to fully accept their thoughts and feelings: any
experience of peace is a by-product of this process. The point is to make experiential
contact with the place from which thoughts, feelings, urges to use and the like need not
be believed, acted upon, run from, etc. The client should be helped to notice the different
aspects of the experience: the lack of struggle, their visceral experience, and anything
else they describe.

Reformulating Language Conventions

 There a specific language conventions that seem to maintain the power that the
obsession has over those with OCD. Tell the client that if s/he is willing to experiment
with a couple of little verbal conventions, we are going to try some new things to
undermine the tendency for words to pull us into a struggle. Say:

“There are things built into our language that help pull us up into the war zone,
things that lead us to take our thoughts to literally be what they say they are. So in here,
for a while, maybe we can adopt a couple of verbal conventions just to call our attention
to what we’re saying and what we really mean when we say these things. The
conventions I’m going to propose may be a little awkward, but they’re not something that
we’ll need to adopt forever. The first convention is this: Name the type of language
being used by saying, “I’m having the (thought/feeling/evaluation/bodily sensation)
that...” If you name the process, it’s easier to see what it really is, rather than what it just
says it is.

The key components of the reformulation are:

1. "I" statements. The particular behavioral events must be phrased in the first person.
2. A clear label of the behavioral process. The main ones in most clinical work are
thoughts, feelings, evaluations, bodily sensations, and memories.
3. Doing or having, not being. There is a subtlety in here that we do not deliberately
teach to clients, but that nevertheless is usually learned. Respondent behavior is usefully
viewed as something you have. Operant behavior is usefully viewed as an action you
chose. In both cases, however, these actions or reactions are not who you are. The issue
is doing or having, not being. Thus, the construction "I am angry" is almost always
harmful. It places an emotion as a quality of being. "I feel angry" or "I have a feeling of
anger" are much safer because they distinguish between the person and the event.

1. Typical client verbalization: "This whole relationship stinks. It's sad really. There is
just no way to pull it back together."
Reformulated client verbalization: "I'm having the evaluation that this relationship
stinks. I have sad feelings associated with that thought, and then I have the thought that
there is no way to pull it back together."

2. Typical client verbalization: "No one could live like I do. I am too anxious. It is
miserable."
Reformulated client verbalization: "I'm having the thought that no one could live
like I do. I have feelings of anxiety and I have the thought that they are too much. I
evaluate it as miserable."

The artificiality of these verbal constructions is a problem initially. If the

therapist is persistent, however, most clients can -- within just a half an hour or so -- get
the hang of it. Typically, there is no need to be watchful about the conventions after a
short while. Just an hour or two of consistent application will get them firmly established
and available for use as needed. Then they can be called upon whenever the client is
getting all tangled up in the content of private events. The conventions help create
enough distance between the person and their own reactions so that these reactions can be
seen as reactions, rather than the world being seen through these reactions.
The second convention has to do with our use of the words ‘but’ and ‘and.’ What
‘but’ literally means is that what follows the word, ‘but’, contradicts what went before the
word. It’s literally a re-buttal. Etymologically, ‘but’ seems to have come from the words
‘be out.’ So, ‘this, but that’ means that there are two things that are inconsistent, that are
literally at war with each other. One has to ‘be out.’ However, what really is the case is
that you’ve got both of them, ‘this, and that.’ So the little convention we might adopt is
to say ‘and’ instead of ‘but’ when we talk. If you try it, you’ll see that almost always
‘and’ is more true to your experience. For example, if I want to go to work and yet I feel
resistant, instead of ‘I want to go but I feel so resistant,’ try ‘I want to go and I feel so
resistant.’ Both things are true, the wanting to go to work, and the feeling of resistance.
By calling attention to what we’re saying with the use of this little convention, it will help
make you more sensitive to one of the ways that people get pulled into the piece-level
struggle with their own history.

Passengers on the Bus Metaphor

The Passengers On The Bus Metaphor is a core ACT intervention aimed at
deliteralizing provocative psychological content through objectification. This is a
particularly effective strategy for those with OCD because it assists them in looking at the
obsession in a way that is less threatening and easier and more rewarding to accept.

"It's as if there is a bus and you're the driver. On this bus we've got a bunch of
passengers. The passengers are thoughts, feelings, bodily states, memories, and other
aspects of experience. Some of them are scary, and they're dressed up in black leather
jackets and they've got switchblade knives. What happens is, you're driving along and the
passengers start threatening you, telling you what you have to do, where you have to go.
"You've got to turn left," "you've got to go right," etc. The threat that they have over you
is that, if you don't do what they say, they're going to come up from the back of the bus.
It's as if you've made deals with these passengers, and the deal is, "You sit in the
back of the bus and scrunch down so that I can't see you very often, and I'll do what you
say, pretty much." Now what if one day you get tired of that and say, "I don't like this!
I'm going to throw those people off the bus!" You stop the bus, and you go back to deal
with the mean-looking passengers. Except you notice that the very first thing you had to
do was stop. Notice now, you're not driving anywhere, you're just dealing with these
passengers. And plus, they're real strong. They don't intend to leave, and you wrestle with
them, but it just doesn't turn out very successfully.
Eventually you go back to placating the passengers, to try to get them to sit way
in the back again where you can't see them. The problem with that deal is that, in
exchange, you do what they ask in exchange for getting them out of your life. Pretty
soon, they don't even have to tell you, "Turn left"--you know as soon as you get near a
left-turn that the passengers are going to crawl all over you. Eventually you may get good
enough that you can almost pretend that they're not on the bus at all, you just tell yourself
that left is the only direction you want to turn. However, when they eventually do show
up, it's with the added power of the deals that you've made with them in the past.
 Now the trick about the whole thing is this: The power that the passengers have
over you is 100% based on this: "If you don't do what we say, we're coming up and we're
making you look at us." That's it. It's true that when they come up they look like they
could do a whole lot more. They've got knives, chains, etc. It looks like you could be
destroyed. The deal you make is to do what they say so they won't come up and stand
next to you and make you look at them. The driver (you) has control of the bus, but you
trade off the control in these secret deals with the passengers. In other words, by trying to
get control, you've actually given up control! Now notice that, even though your
passengers claim they can destroy you if you don't turn left, it has never actually
happened. These passengers can't make you do something against your will.

The therapist can continue to allude to the bus metaphor throughout

deliteralization work. Questions such as, "Which passenger is threatening you now?" can
help re-orient the client who is practicing emotional avoidance in session.

Tichener's Milk, Milk, Milk Exercise

The following ACT exercise is one of the most commonly used defusion interventions.
When done with OCD clients it is more useful to do the exercise with the client’s
obsession. If the obsession is a long statement, shorten it to something that can be quickly
repeated.

Therapist: Let's do a little exercise. It's an eyes-open one. I'm going to ask you to say
your most common obsession.
Client: I will get a disease from touching something contaminated.
Therapist: If you had to shorten that to one word what would that be?
Client: Good. Now what came to mind when you said that?
Client: Death, disease, horrible pictures
Therapist: OK. What else. What shows up when we say "contaminated?"
Client: Scared.
Therapist: Good. What else?
Client: I feel uncomfortable.
Therapist: Exactly. And can you feel what it might feel like to be contaminated
Client: Sure.
Therapist: OK, so let's see if this fits. What shot through your mind was things about
actual contamination and your actual and believed experience with it. All that
happened is that we made a strange sound --contaminated-- and lots of these
things showed up. Notice that there isn't any contamination in this room. None at
all. But contamination was in the room psychologically. You and I were seeing it,
feeling it--yet only the word was actually here. Now, here is the little exercise, if
you're willing to try it. The exercise is a little silly, and so you might feel a little
embarrassed doing it, but I am going to do the exercise with you so we can all be
silly together. What I am going to ask you to do is to say the word
"contamination", out loud, rapidly, over-and-over again and then notice what
happens. Are you willing to try it?
Client: I guess so.
Therapist: OK. Let's do it. Say "contamination" over and over again. [Therapist and client
say the work for one or two minutes, with the therapist periodically encouraging
the client to keep it going, to keep saying it out loud, or to go faster]
Therapist: OK, now stop. Where is the contamination?
Client: Gone (laughs).
Therapist: Did you notice what happened to the psychological aspects of contamination
that were here a few minutes ago?
Client: After about 40 times it disappeared. All I could hear was the sound. It sounded
very strange--in fact I had a funny feeling that I didn't even know what word I
was saying for a few moments. It sounded more like a bird sound than a word.
Therapist: Right. The scary, horrible, diseased, germy stuff just goes away. The first time
you said it, it was as if contamination was actually here, in the room. But all that
really happened was that you said a word. The first time you said it, it was really
meaning-full, it was almost solid. But when you said it again and again and again,
you began to lose that meaning and the words began to also be just a sound.
Client: That's what happened.
Therapist: Well, when you say things to yourself in addition to any meaning behind those
words isn't it also true that these words are just words. The words are just smoke.
There isn't anything solid in them.

This exercise demonstrates quite quickly that while literal meaning dominates in
language it is not that hard to establish contexts in which literal meaning quickly
weakness and almost disappears.

6. Homework 5& 6

Both of these homework exercises are experiential. Thus, they should be done
once in session so that the client can do them at home over the week. They each take
approximately 10 minutes. The therapist can check in with the client during these
exercises to make sure the client is following. But before the exercises the client should
be told to not converse with the therapist during the exercise. The client should give the
most brief answer possible to any questions and save conversation until the exercise is
finished.

Observer exercise
We need to provide the client with an experience of themselves as context rather
than as themselves as content. The Observer Exercise (a variant of the "self-identification
exercise" developed by Assagioli, 1971, pp. 211-217) is designed to begin to establish a
sense of self that exists in the present and provides a context for cognitive defusion.

"We are going to do an exercise now that is a way to begin to try to experience
that place where you are not your programming. There is no way anyone can fail at the
exercise; we're just going to be looking at whatever you are feeling or thinking so
whatever comes up is just right. Close your eyes, get settled into your chair and follow
my voice. If you find yourself wandering, just gently come back to the sound of my
voice. For a moment now, turn your attention to yourself in this room. Picture the room.
Picture yourself in this room and exactly where you are. Now begin to go inside your
skin, and get in touch with your body. Notice how you are sitting in the chair. See if you
can notice exactly the shape that is made by the parts of your skin that touch the chair.
Notice any bodily sensations that are there. As you see each one, just sort of acknowledge
that feeling and allow your conscious to move on. [pause] Now notice any emotions you
are having and if you have any just acknowledge them [pause]. Now get in touch with
your thoughts and just quietly watch them for a few moments [pause]. Now I want you to
notice that as you noticed these things a part of you noticed them. You noticed those
sensations ... those emotions ... those thoughts. and that part of you we will call the
"observer you." There is a person in here, behind those eyes, that is aware of what I am
saying right now. And it is the same person you've been your whole life. In some deep
sense this observer you is the you that you call you.
I want you to remember something that happened last summer. Raise your finger
when you have an image in mind. Good. Now just look around. Remember all the things
that were happening then. Remember the sights ... The sounds ... Your feelings ... and as
you do that see if you can notice that you were there then noticing what you were
noticing. See if you can catch the person behind your eyes who saw, and heard, and felt.
You were there then, and you are here now. I'm not asking you to believe this. I'm not
making a logical point. I am just asking you to note the experience of being aware and
check and see if it isn't so that in some deep sense the you that is here now was there
then. The person aware of what you are aware of is here now and was there then. See if
you can notice the essential continuity--in some deep sense, at the level of experience, not
of belief, you have been you your whole life.
I want you to remember something that happened when you were a teenager.
Raise your finger when you have an image in mind. Good. Now just look around.
Remember all the things that were happening then. Remember the sights ... The sounds ...
Your feelings ... Take your time. And when you are clear about what was there see if you
just for a second catch that there was a person behind your eyes then who saw, and heard,
and felt all of this. You were there then, too, and see if it isn't true, as an experienced fact,
not a belief, that there is an essential continuity between the person aware of what you are
aware of now and the person who was aware of what you were aware of as a teenager in
that specific situation. You have been you your whole life.
Finally, remember something that happened when you were a fairly young child,
say around age six or seven. Raise your finger when you have an image in mind. Good.
Now just look around again. See what was happening. See the sights ... hear the sounds ...
feel your feelings ... and then catch the fact that you were there seeing, hearing, and
feeling. Notice that you were there behind your eyes. You were there then, and you are
here now. Check and see if in some deep sense the "you" that is here now was there then.
The person aware of what you are aware of is here now and was there then.
You have been you your whole life. Everywhere you've been, you've been there
noticing. This is what I mean by the "observer you." And from that perspective or point
of view I want you to look at some areas of living. Let's start with your body. Notice how
your body is constantly changing. Sometimes it is sick and sometimes it is well. It may be
rested or tired. It may be strong or weak. You were once a tiny baby, but your body grew.
You may have even have had parts of your body removed, like in an operation. Your
cells have died and literally almost every cell in your body was not there as a teenager, or
even last summer. Your bodily sensations come and go. Even as we have spoken they
have changed. So if all this is changing and yet the you that you call you has been there
your whole life that must mean that while you have a body, as a matter of experience and
not of belief, you do not experience yourself to be just your body. So just notice your
body now for a few moments, and as you do this, every so often notice you are the one
noticing. [give the client time to do this]
Now let's go to another area: your roles. Notice how many roles you have or have
had. Sometimes you’re in the role of a [fit these to client, e.g., "mother... or a friend... or a
daughter... or a wife... sometimes you’re a respected worker... other times you’re a
leader... or a follower"... etc.]. In the outside world, you’re in some role all the time. If
you were to try not to be, then you’d be playing the role of not playing a role. Even now,
part of you is playing a role... the client role. Yet all the while notice that you are also
present. The part of you that is "you"... is watching and aware of what you are aware of.
And in some deep sense that "you" does not change. So if your roles are constantly
changing, and yet the you that you are has been there your whole life, it must be that
while you have roles, you do not experience yourself to be your roles. Do not believe
this. This is not a matter of belief. Just look and notice the distinction between what you
are looking at, and the you that is looking.
Now let's go to another area: emotions. Notice how your emotions are constantly
changing. Sometimes you feel love and sometimes hatred, calm and then tense, joy-
sorrowful, happy-sad. Even now you may be experiencing emotions. . .interest, boredom,
relaxation. Think of things you have liked, and don't like any longer; of fears that you
once had that now are resolved. The only thing you can count on with emotions is that
they will change. Though a wave of emotion comes, it will pass in time. And yet while
these emotions come and go, notice that in some deep sense that "you" does not change.
That must be that while you have emotions, you do not experience yourself to be just
your emotions. Allow yourself to realize this as an experienced event, not as a belief. In
some very important and deep way you experience yourself as a constant. You are you
through it all. So just notice your emotions for a moment and as you do notice also that
you are noticing them [Leave a brief period of silence].
Now let's turn to a very difficult area. Your own thoughts. Thoughts are difficult
because they tend to hook us and pull us up to piece level. If that happens, just come back
to the sound of my voice. Notice how your thoughts are constantly changing. You used to
be ignorant--then you went to school and learned new thoughts. You have gained new
ideas, and new knowledge. Sometimes you think about things one way and sometimes
another. Sometimes your thoughts may make little sense. Sometimes they seem to come
up automatically, from out of nowhere. They are constantly changing. Look at your
thoughts even since you came in today and notice how many different thoughts you have
had. And yet in some deep way the you that knows what you think is not changing. So
that must mean that while you have thoughts, you do not experience yourself to be just
your thoughts. Do not believe this. Just notice it. And notice even as you realize this, that
your stream of thoughts will continue. And you may get caught up with them. And yet in
the instant that you realize that, you also realize that a part of you is standing back,
watching it all. So now watch your thoughts for a few moments, and as you do, notice
also that you are noticing them [Leave a brief period of silence].
 So as a matter of experience and not of belief you are not just your body... your
roles ... your emotions ... your thoughts. These things are the content of your life, while
you are the arena...the context...the space in which they unfold. As you see that, notice
that the things you've been struggling with, and trying to change are not you anyway. No
matter how this war goes, you will be there, unchanged. See if you can take advantage of
this connection to let go just a little bit, secure in the knowledge that you have been you
through it all, and that you need not have such an investment in all this psychological
content as a measure of your life. Just notice the experiences in all the domains that show
up and as you do notice that you are still here, being aware of what you are aware of
[Leave a brief period of silence].
Now again picture yourself in this room. And now picture the room. Picture
[describe the room]. Take a few more deep breaths. And when you are ready to come
back into the room, open your eyes.

After this exercise, process the clients' experience with the exercise. Be careful to
avoid analysis of the experience, but focus on the experience itself. It is useful to see if
there were any particular qualities of the experience of connecting with the "you". It is
not unusual for clients to report a sense of tranquillity or peace. Life experiences invoked
in this exercise, many of which are threatening and anxiety promoting, can be received
peacefully and tranquilly (i.e. accepted with a willingness posture) when they are viewed
as bits and pieces of self-content, not as defining the self per se. It is usually worth
leaving the client with the active implications of this experience. The therapist can link
the client back to experiences with the chessboard metaphor: For example, "there is one
other thing which the board, as a board can do, other than hold the pieces. It can take a
direction, regardless of what the pieces are doing at the time. It can see what is there, feel
what is there, and still say, 'Here we go'!

The client can be assigned this exercise as homework. The client should find a place in
his or her home where he or she will not be interrupted, get centered, and observe what
occurs.

Second defusion homework

Homework 6
The exercise helps distinguish between thoughts observed as thoughts and
thoughts bought as beliefs or concepts.
This exercise shows how quickly thoughts pull us away from experience when we
buy them. All I’m going to ask you to do is to think whatever thoughts you think and to
allow them to flow, one thought after another. The purpose of the exercise is to notice
when there’s a shift from looking at your thoughts, to looking from your thoughts. You
will know that has happened when the parade stops or you are down in the parade or the
exercise has disappeared.
I’m going to ask you to imagine that there are little people, soldiers, marching out
of your left ear marching down in front of you in a parade. You are up on the reviewing
stand, watching the parade go by. Each soldier is carrying a sign, and each thought you
have is a sentence written on one of these signs. Some people have a hard time putting
thoughts into words, and they see thoughts as images. If that applies to you, put each
image on a sign being carried by the soldiers. Certain people don’t like the image of
soldiers, and there is an alternative image I have used in that case: leaves floating by in a
stream. You can pick the one that seems best.
Get centered, and begin to let your thoughts go by written on placards carried by
the soldiers. Now here is the task. The task is simply to watch the parade go by without
having it stop and without you jumping down into the parade. You are just supposed to
let it flow. It is very unlikely, however, that you will be able to do this without
interruption. And this is the key part of this exercise. At some point you will have the
sense that the parade has stopped, or that you have lost the point of the exercise, or that
you are down in the parade instead of being on the reviewing stand. When that happens, I
would like you to back up a few seconds and see if you can catch what you were doing
right before the parade stopped. Then go ahead and put your thoughts on the placards
again, until the parade stops a second time, and so on. The main thing is to notice when it
stops for any reason and see if you can catch what happened right before it stopped.
One more thing. If the parade never gets going at all and you start thinking “it’s
not working.” or “I’m not doing it right” then let that thought be written on a placard and
send it down into the parade.
6. Behavioral commitments

The therapist should continue to offer opportunities for the client to make
commitments to practice willingness to experience the urge. These willingness exercises
should continue throughout treatment so that the client experiences what willingness
involves. The exercises should continue to be for specific durations or specific amounts.
The client should be increasing his or her commitments throughout the treatment. The
client should not be pushed to make commitments that are larger than will occur; while at
the same time the client should choose commitments that are big enough steps that the
client is making progress and increasing his or her willingness repertoire.
Again, these exercises provide very useful material for the following sessions.
The client will very likely experience difficulties with the obsession between sessions
which can be used as the material for the treatment.

Sessions 7 & 8.

Must Read.
ACT book. Chapter 8. Values
ACT book. Chapter 9. Putting Willingness into Action
Session 7 & 8 Focus:
1. Assess functioning
2. Review reactions to last session
3. Review homework
4. Introduce Values (give values homework)
5. Increase focus on Behavioral Commitment

1. Assess functioning
The therapist should assess any changes in the client’s environment and for
changes in the client’s OCD such as frequency, intensity, or disturbance caused by the
OCD. Assess if the client is doing anything differently as a result of the therapy.
2. Review reactions to last session
Give the client an opportunity to express any reactions to the previous sessions.
Be especially aware of comments that indicate that the client is using the material
presented in session as ways to control the obsession. This information will provide
information as to which areas of ACT need to be readdressed.

3. Review homework
Review the client’s experiences associated with the homework. The client’s
experiences from the homework should be integrated into the therapy sessions.

4. Values
Hopefully at this point in treatment the client is showing decreases in his or her
compulsions and becoming less involved in struggles with the obsessions. Through
contacting the natural contingencies the client should begin to contact the appetitive
results of not giving into the compulsions. Presumably, if the client is spending less time
engaging and struggling with the compulsions, more time will be spent engaging in
valued activities.
At this point in treatment the therapist should assist the client assessing his or her
values. Completing the values assessment inventory does this. Clarification of the client’s
values assists in giving the client direction outside of the support of the therapist. This
will aid in long-term outcome of the treatment because it helps direct the client in
difficult situations. Additionally, increasing the time involved valued activities will help
maintain values driven behavior over behavior regulated by avoiding or escaping the
obsession.

The Values Assessment Inventory is used to clarify the client’s values.

Values Assessment Exercise

The following are areas of life that are valued by some people. Not everyone has
the same values and this worksheet is not a test to see if you have the “correct” values.
Describe your values as if no one would ever read this worksheet. As you work, think
about each area in terms of both concrete goals you might have, and also in terms of more
general life directions. So, for instance, you might value getting married as a concrete
goal and being a loving spouse as a valued direction. The first example, getting married is
something that could be completed. The second example--being a loving spouse--does
not have an end. You could always be more loving, no matter how loving you already
were. Work through each of the life domains. Some of the domains overlap. You may
have trouble keeping family separate from marriage/intimate relations. Do your best to
keep them separate. Your therapist will provide assistance when you discuss this goals
and values assessment. Clearly number each section, and keep them separate from one
another. You may not have any valued goals in certain areas. You may skip those areas
and discuss them directly with your therapist. It is also important that you write down
what you would value if there were nothing in your way. We are not asking what you
think you could realistically get, or what you or others think you deserve. We want to
know what you care about, what you would want to work towards, in the best of all
situations. While doing the worksheet, pretend that magic happened and that anything is
possible.
1. Marriage/couples/intimate relations. In this section, write down a description
of the person you would like to be in an intimate relationship. Write down
the type of relationship you would want to have. Try to focus on your role
in that relationship.
2. Family relations. In this section, describe the type of brother/sister,
son/daughter, father/mother you want to be. Describe the qualities you
would want to have in those relationships. Describe how you would treat
these people if you were the ideal you in these various relationships.
3. Friendships/social relations. In this section, write down what it means to you
to be a good friend. If you were able to be the best friend possible, how
would you behave toward your friends? Try to describe an ideal
friendship.
4. Career/Employment. In this section, describe what type of work you would
like to do. This can be very specific or very general. (Remember, this is in
an ideal world.) After writing about the type of work you would like to do,
write about why it appeals to you. Next, discuss what kind of worker you
would like to be with respect to your employer and coworkers. What
would you want your work relations to be like?
5. Education/Personal Growth & Development. If you would like to pursue an
education, formally or informally, or to pursue some specialized training,
write about that. Write about why this sort of training or education appeals
to you.
6. Recreation/Leisure. Discuss the type of recreational life you would like to
have, including hobbies, sports and leisure activities.
7. Spirituality. We are not necessarily referring to organized religion in this
section. What we mean by spirituality is whatever that means to you. This
might be as simple as communing with nature, or as formal as
participation in an organized religious group. Whatever spirituality means
to you is fine. If this an important area of life, write about what you would
want it to be. As with all of the other areas, if this is not an important part
of your values, skip to the next section.
8. Citizenship. For some people, participating in community affairs is an
important part of life. For instance, some people feel that it is important to
volunteer with the homeless or elderly, lobby governmental policy makers
at the federal, state, or local level, participate as a member of a group
committed to conserving wildlife, or to participate in the service structure
of a self-help group, such as Alcoholics Anonymous. If these sort of
community oriented activities are important to you, write about what
direction you would like to take in these areas. Write about what appeals
to you about this area.
9. Health/Physical well-being. In this section, include your values related to
maintaining your physical well-being. Write about health related issues
such as sleep, diet, exercise, smoking, and so forth
 Values Narrative Form

Generate a brief narrative for each row, based upon discussion of the client’s values
assessment homework. If none is applicable, put “none.” After generating all narratives,
read each to the client and refine. Continue this process, simultaneously watching out
for pliance-type answers, until you and the client arrive at a brief statement that the
client agrees is consistent with their values in a given domain.

Domain Valued Direction Narrative

Couples/Intimate
Relationships

Family Relations

Social Relations

Employment

Education and
Training

Recreation

Spirituality

Citizenship
 Values Assessment Rating Form
Read and then rate each of the values narratives generated by you and your therapist.
Rate how important this value is to you, on a scale of 1 (high importance) to 10 (low
importance). Rate how successfully you have live this value during the past month on a
scale of 1 (very successfully) to 10 (not at all successfully). Finally rank these value
narratives in order of the importance you place on working on them right now, with 1
being the highest rank, 2 the next highest, and so on.

Rating or Rank

Importance
Domain Valued Direction Narrative

Success

Rank
Couples/Intimate
Relationships

Family Relations

Social Relations

Employment

Education and
Training

Recreation

Spirituality

Citizenship

5. Increase focus on Behavioral Commitment

After values have been clarified, it is time to assist the client in shifting the focus
to engaging in these behaviors. The client has been making commitments to increase his
or her willingness throughout the treatment, and now the commitment should be more
focused on engaging in these valued activities. The following exercises will assist the
client in engaging in valued activities over slipping back into an avoidance strategy.
Bum at the door
"Imagine that you got a new house and you invited all the neighbors over to a
party, a housewarming. Everyone's invited in the whole neighborhood--you even put up a
sign at the supermarket. So all the neighbors show up, the party's going great, and here
comes Joe-the-bum, who lives behind the supermarket in the trash dumpster. He's stinky
and smelly and you think, God, why did he show up? But you did say on the sign,
“Everyone's welcome.” Can you see that it's possible for you to welcome him, and really,
fully, do that without liking that he's there? You can welcome him even though you don't
think well of him. You don't have to like him. You don't have to like the way he smells,
or his life style, or his clothing. You may be embarrassed about the way he's dipping into
the punch or the finger sandwiches. Your opinion of him, your evaluation of him is
absolutely distinct from you willingness to have him as a guest in your home. Now you
can decide that even though you said everyone was welcome, in reality he's not welcome.
But as soon as you do that, the party changes. Now you have to be at the front of the
house, guarding the door so he can't come back in. Or if you say, OK, you're welcome,
but you don't really mean it, you only mean that he's welcome as long as he stays in the
kitchen and doesn't mingle with the other guests, then you're going to have to be
constantly making him do that, and your whole party will be about that. Meanwhile, life's
going on, the party's going on, and you're off guarding the bum. It's just not life-
enhancing. It's not much like a party. It's a lot of work. What the metaphor is about, of
course, is all the feelings and memories and thoughts that show up that you don't like;
they're just more bums at the door. The issue is the posture you take with regards to your
own stuff. Are they welcome? Can you choose to welcome them in, even though you
don't like the fact they came? If not, what's the party going to be like?"

The fantasy is that withholding willingness will promote peace of mind. The
reality is the opposite. In fact, most clients have noticed that when we try hard to stop one
reaction from joining the party, other undesirable reactions follow along right behind:
what one ACT therapist called "the bum's chums."

Moving Through a Swamp

At this point in therapy, it is useful to explain to the client that the need for
willingness emerges in the context of commitment. Without a goal and a commitment to
values and goals, there is no need for willingness. It is as if there is a swamp in front of
you. Acceptance is what happens when you are willing to go into that swamp. But
notice also that there is a purpose to it. It is not that we need to wallow in swamps. It is
that when we are going somewhere, sometimes there is a swamp there, and we have the
choice either to change directions or to open up. It is as if you could cast a string across
the swamp to reach a particular point on the other side. Then, when you are up to your
ass in goop, you can always refer back to the string and see if you are headed in the
direction you set for yourself. Only you can cast that string, and without it acceptance
loses its direction.

Choosing: Coke versus 7-Up

 Ask the client to imagine being given a choice between two kinds of soft drinks:
Coke and 7-Up (can also be done with two types of juices, coffee and tea, two flavors of
ice cream, etc.). Ask the client to choose. Whatever the client says, ask why. If a reason
is given, attack the reason, point out that the choice could have been different even with
that reason, and ask the client once again to choose. And anyway, the issue is which do
you choose, not which do your reasons choose. Continue until it is clear that any reason
the client given can be argued, and that reasons, per se, aren’t necessary. Tell the client
the issue isn’t even doing things because you want to do them, because there are many
things in life we do whether we want to do them or not. Rather, the issue is choosing
simply because you choose. Say, “You have the capacity to take a course of action for no
other reason than that you choose to take it.” It’s not necessary to defend or explain.