Here is an excellent podcast called "Dark Thoughts" by NPR on the cutting-edge treatment of anxious or disturbing thoughts. The story involves a man with OCD with "harming" obsessions who gains freedom with a combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (the 2nd historical wave of Psychotherapy) and mindfulness-based therapy including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (the latest 3rd wave). It's a good demonstration of how I help clients with OCD and various kinds of obsessional thinking, ruminations and worry.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a set up skills that illuminates the way for us to drop our futile and culturally-bound attempts to wage war against our own inner lives. Rather than trying to reduce or eliminate difficult states such as shame, grief or fear, I enjoying teaching clients psychological acceptance techniques that encourage them to notice such difficult feelings more fully, while reducing their conditioned link to problematic action, such as avoidance behavio
Anti-Avoidance techniques are often an important part of becoming freer in life and are an integral part of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a cutting-edge Cognitive-Behavioral Approach to healing. Here's an interesting description of "Experiential Avoidance" and how it is implicated in mental health challenges
