Treating Taboo or Forbidden Thoughts: Integrating Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Emotion Regulation Into an Exposure-Based Intervention

Abstract

Individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) who struggle with taboo or unacceptable obsessions (i.e., aggressive, sexual, or religious intrusions) tend to rely upon mental rituals to regulate their distress and possess difficulties labeling and regulating their affective state. Moreover, these individuals respond poorly to exposure with response prevention when the treatment is grounded in emotional processing theory. To improve patients' therapeutic outcomes, clinicians can consider integrating mindfulness- and acceptance-based skills into an exposure-based treatment to: facilitate the identification and acceptance of covert ritualistic urges, improve the accuracy of emotion labeling, and increase the efficiency of emotion regulation efforts. Additionally, in line with inhibitory learning theory, clinicians can design exposures to violate expectancies to promote the maintenance of long-term gains. Through a case vignette, the current article will demonstrate how to integrate these strategies into a standard exposure with response prevention intervention to meet the needs of a patient with taboo thoughts.