A New Treatment Approach for OCD and Anxiety Disorders

Within the last ten years, a new form of CBT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), has been gaining noteworthy empirical support. ACT focuses on acceptance and mindfulness-based skills to promote psychological flexibility. It has six core processes: acceptance, cognitive fusion, present moment awareness, self as context, values and committed action. The core idea of acceptance and commitment therapy comes from contextual behaviour science, in which individuals learn to re-contextualize their negative thoughts, feelings, and sensations and learn to adopt new behaviours. A recent meta-analysis suggested that the use of ACT in individuals with OCD and other anxiety disorders is an effective form of treatment and found modest empirical support.

Reference:

Mathes, B. M., Van Kirk, N., & Elias, J. A. (2015). Review of Psychotherapeutic Approaches for OCD and Related Disorders. Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry, 2(3), 284-296. doi:10.1007/s40501-015-0052-7