great job! welcome back! loving these videos. It's funny because I usually check emails when I get up in am, then I'll watch new videos and it actually gets my mind back on track lol
I'm struggling to see the application of I-CBT and am curious whether you can provide some insight. To me it sounds like I-CBT, in attempting to create a non-OCD narrative, is engaging the content of the obsession and actively compulsing. If the scrupulous obsessive fear becomes "My god hates me, (what if) I have angered god" wouldn't responding with "actually, my god is loving and accepting of me" serve to continue the OCD cycle? How does I-CBT breaks the obsessive-compulsive cycle?
That's definitely a common question when coming from the school of not engaging with the content. Ever. For anyone wanting to take the I-CBT approach, there is definitely a "forget what you've learned" step that's required. ICBT doesn't necessarily require you to engage with the content. But it does require you to recognize the reasoning that is leading you to believe that a situation like "God hates you" is a relevant concern. There are a number of OCD thinking traps that lead to such a conclusion. For starters, there is obsessional doubt, a behavioral pattern that leads you to doubt all of the sensory information that suggests you have nothing to worry about, and instead explore possibilities in your imagination where those possibilities begin to feel vital and real. Another trap is the 'selectivity of the doubt.' This is a reasoning error where you focus your attention on certain possibilities (God hates me, for example) while paying no mind to other possibilities (I could have cancer, I might not have turned off the stove, etc. The exact doubts that are focused on vs ignored vary from person to person). You identify the reasoning that has led you to believe that you're vulnerable to certain possibilities and not others. ICBT is a cognitive and experiential therapy where you identify the traps and tricks that lead to the OCD reasoning, and then practice the skill of trusting sensory information and not crossing over into the imagination. I hope that's a helpful primer!
Hi Mike, I'm glad these videos are helpful for people who struggle with OCD! That's great. As a provider, I find that when people talk about I-CBT, I don't really hear anything new being said. It just sounds like CBT. "Trusting your senses" sounds like collaborative empiricism, and learning to identify inferences just sounds like metacognitive awareness practices. Is there any program or video that you think could be concise regarding what is different about I-CBT? That would be much appreciated
@@edwardbevan9256 Great questions. The unique contribution of ICBT starts with the conceptualization of OCD. From an ICBT perspective, OCD is a problem of "obsessional doubt" where the individual has reasoned themselves into believing that they should doubt the available information, and explore hypothetical 'what ifs' in the imagination. Some examples include: "I don't want to hurt anyone, but what if I do it anyway?" "I didn't notice running over anyone on my way to work, but what if I didn't notice it happening?" "I don't want to end my life, but what if I'm becoming suicidally depressed?" Traditional CBT would target the logic of the obsession, perhaps pointing out the low probability of the possibility, and looking at the evidence for and against. But this would be too far downstream. Neither Metacognitive Therapy nor CBT would address the underlying problem fueling the person's decision to repeatedly reject/question/doubt the available information in the first place. And it would miss the fact that the individual with OCD already has the required information available to repel doubt. The real question is why does someone with an OCD obsession even ask themselves the question "what if I might have hit someone and not remembered it?" And another person without this obsession doesn't even ask the question at all. This behavior of obsessional doubt is a voluntary behavior fueld by a faulty OCD reasoning process. ICBT targets this process. The content of the obsession doesn't even need to be addressed. I'd say this is one of the main distinctions but this is only one angle. ICBT also looks at the individual's core doubt they have about themself that results in a lack of self knowledge. It looks at the dissociation of imaginal absorption that occurs when one repeatedly doubts the available information. It looks at the difference between reasonable doubt vs. obsessional doubt. If you're interested, I'd recommend perusing the ICBT online website: icbt.online/. You'll find a ton of resources, including worksheets for the 12 modules of the treatment. To really learn the treatment, I'd also recommend the treatment manual that is linked under Books and Manuals. I hope that helps.
Very much appreciate the thoughtful response and resource link. I will explore more. I would like to see what an I-CBT session actually looks like Best regards
Absolutely. Contamination is actually a pretty wide range of OCD concerns so it would be tailored to each issue. For example, some people simply doubt whether they are "dirty" or not. They might not believe their own eyes when they look at their hands and they appear clean. Others may doubt whether they may have a dangerous invisible substance or germ on their hands. In all situations, we can still see the problem is a distrust and doubt of the available information and a desire to perpetually seek out more information than is available through the senses. A lack of trust in one's "common sense" can also often play a big part with contamination. Someone with contamination is often living in a way that they would not recommend to others, which is an indication that their common sense is not being applied to themselves.
Hi Jay, We have a wait list at my practice. You can always request services online and indicate a therapist preference. pittsburghocdtreatment.com/contact/
great job! welcome back! loving these videos. It's funny because I usually check emails when I get up in am, then I'll watch new videos and it actually gets my mind back on track lol
Happy to hear it Keith!
This made me cry with relief. I’m 40 and have been suffering from just distressing OCD since I was 5. Thank you so much for this.
Thanks for watching, and I'm so happy this was helpful/meaningful for you!
Love this Michael! Thank you so much for your videos. They explain so much of how we've been hijacked by OCD!
Thank you. So happy they have been valuable!
I'm struggling to see the application of I-CBT and am curious whether you can provide some insight. To me it sounds like I-CBT, in attempting to create a non-OCD narrative, is engaging the content of the obsession and actively compulsing. If the scrupulous obsessive fear becomes "My god hates me, (what if) I have angered god" wouldn't responding with "actually, my god is loving and accepting of me" serve to continue the OCD cycle? How does I-CBT breaks the obsessive-compulsive cycle?
That's definitely a common question when coming from the school of not engaging with the content. Ever. For anyone wanting to take the I-CBT approach, there is definitely a "forget what you've learned" step that's required. ICBT doesn't necessarily require you to engage with the content. But it does require you to recognize the reasoning that is leading you to believe that a situation like "God hates you" is a relevant concern. There are a number of OCD thinking traps that lead to such a conclusion. For starters, there is obsessional doubt, a behavioral pattern that leads you to doubt all of the sensory information that suggests you have nothing to worry about, and instead explore possibilities in your imagination where those possibilities begin to feel vital and real. Another trap is the 'selectivity of the doubt.' This is a reasoning error where you focus your attention on certain possibilities (God hates me, for example) while paying no mind to other possibilities (I could have cancer, I might not have turned off the stove, etc. The exact doubts that are focused on vs ignored vary from person to person). You identify the reasoning that has led you to believe that you're vulnerable to certain possibilities and not others. ICBT is a cognitive and experiential therapy where you identify the traps and tricks that lead to the OCD reasoning, and then practice the skill of trusting sensory information and not crossing over into the imagination. I hope that's a helpful primer!
Hi Mike, I'm glad these videos are helpful for people who struggle with OCD! That's great. As a provider, I find that when people talk about I-CBT, I don't really hear anything new being said. It just sounds like CBT. "Trusting your senses" sounds like collaborative empiricism, and learning to identify inferences just sounds like metacognitive awareness practices. Is there any program or video that you think could be concise regarding what is different about I-CBT? That would be much appreciated
@@edwardbevan9256 Great questions. The unique contribution of ICBT starts with the conceptualization of OCD. From an ICBT perspective, OCD is a problem of "obsessional doubt" where the individual has reasoned themselves into believing that they should doubt the available information, and explore hypothetical 'what ifs' in the imagination. Some examples include: "I don't want to hurt anyone, but what if I do it anyway?" "I didn't notice running over anyone on my way to work, but what if I didn't notice it happening?" "I don't want to end my life, but what if I'm becoming suicidally depressed?" Traditional CBT would target the logic of the obsession, perhaps pointing out the low probability of the possibility, and looking at the evidence for and against. But this would be too far downstream. Neither Metacognitive Therapy nor CBT would address the underlying problem fueling the person's decision to repeatedly reject/question/doubt the available information in the first place. And it would miss the fact that the individual with OCD already has the required information available to repel doubt. The real question is why does someone with an OCD obsession even ask themselves the question "what if I might have hit someone and not remembered it?" And another person without this obsession doesn't even ask the question at all. This behavior of obsessional doubt is a voluntary behavior fueld by a faulty OCD reasoning process. ICBT targets this process. The content of the obsession doesn't even need to be addressed. I'd say this is one of the main distinctions but this is only one angle. ICBT also looks at the individual's core doubt they have about themself that results in a lack of self knowledge. It looks at the dissociation of imaginal absorption that occurs when one repeatedly doubts the available information. It looks at the difference between reasonable doubt vs. obsessional doubt. If you're interested, I'd recommend perusing the ICBT online website: icbt.online/. You'll find a ton of resources, including worksheets for the 12 modules of the treatment. To really learn the treatment, I'd also recommend the treatment manual that is linked under Books and Manuals. I hope that helps.
Very much appreciate the thoughtful response and resource link. I will explore more. I would like to see what an I-CBT session actually looks like
Best regards
Cool! I just found your videos. Please keep it up!
Welcome aboard! Happy the videos have been helpful.
Really helpful videos, thank you. This approach makes so much more sense to me than ERP.
You're welcome!
@@OCDspace412 any more videos planned?
does ICBT works for food and contamination? (i know is a very specific question, sorry, haha)
Absolutely. Contamination is actually a pretty wide range of OCD concerns so it would be tailored to each issue. For example, some people simply doubt whether they are "dirty" or not. They might not believe their own eyes when they look at their hands and they appear clean. Others may doubt whether they may have a dangerous invisible substance or germ on their hands. In all situations, we can still see the problem is a distrust and doubt of the available information and a desire to perpetually seek out more information than is available through the senses. A lack of trust in one's "common sense" can also often play a big part with contamination. Someone with contamination is often living in a way that they would not recommend to others, which is an indication that their common sense is not being applied to themselves.
Hi Mike, are you taking on any clients at the moment. Keen to get a booking. Thanks 😊
Hi Jay, We have a wait list at my practice. You can always request services online and indicate a therapist preference. pittsburghocdtreatment.com/contact/