Author(s)

Barbara Basile^1*, Olga Ines Luppino¹, Francesco Mancini^1,2, Katia Tenore¹

¹Association of Cognitive Psychology, School of Cognitive Psychotherapy, Rome, Italy.
²Marconi University, Rome, Italy.

This final article is part of the trilogy presenting a possible integration of Schema Therapy (ST) and Cognitive Therapy (CT) in Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) treatment. It aims at describing how experiential and cognitive based acceptance techniques might be applied to treat this psychopathological condition. In the first article published in this special issue (Luppino et al., 2018) we reported the main data supporting the role of proximal psychological determinants in the genesis and maintenance of the obsessive symptomatology, highlighting the role of deontological guilt and disgust, and of the Not Just Right Experience. According to these, we described the internal profile of the disorder as conceptualized by Mancini’s (2018) cognitive model. In the second manuscript (Tenore et al., 2018) we proposed a conceptualization of OCD, in terms of schemas and modes (as proposed by ST), integrating it with the previously described cognitive model. In agreement with these two articles, the aim of this work is to explain how experiential and cognitive techniques can be integrated to explain obsessive functioning and to achieve a successful treatment. We first describe emotion focused-experiential procedures derived from the ST framework, specifically focusing on imagery techniques, such as diagnostic imagery, rescripting and Healthy Adult imagery. Secondly we explain how chairwork can be applied to change obsessive dysfunctional schema modes. Finally, we focus on cognitive based acceptance intervention aimed at reducing the typical feelings of deontological guilt and disgust, two core emotions in OCD. In the conclusion we briefly resume the major aspects proposed in the three articles, and we present some potential further applications of a joined approach applied to other psychopathological conditions.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Schema Therapy, Cognitive Therapy, Imagery with Rescripting, Chairwork, Acceptance

Basile, B. , Luppino, O. , Mancini, F. and Tenore, K. (2018) A Theoretical Integration of Schema Therapy and Cognitive Therapy in OCD Treatment: Experiential Techniques and Cognitive-Based Interventions in Action (Part III). Psychology, 9, 2296-2311. doi: 10.4236/psych.2018.99131.