# ST (Schema Therapy) or ACT (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy)?



## soulpotato (Jan 22, 2013)

Does anyone have experience with ST (Schema Therapy) or ACT (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy)?


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## Pooh Bear (Dec 28, 2014)

soulpotato said:


> Does anyone have experience with ST (Schema Therapy) or ACT (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy)?


I have never done Schema Therapy but my therapist uses ACT as a treatment for OCD. It is amazing.


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## soulpotato (Jan 22, 2013)

Pooh Bear said:


> I have never done Schema Therapy but my therapist uses ACT as a treatment for OCD. It is amazing.


Well that certainly sounds promising!  Do you mind telling me a bit about it and your experience with it? I'm trying to get a feel for it and whether or not I should try to hunt down a therapist who is trained in it.


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## Pooh Bear (Dec 28, 2014)

soulpotato said:


> Well that certainly sounds promising!  Do you mind telling me a bit about it and your experience with it? I'm trying to get a feel for it and whether or not I should try to hunt down a therapist who is trained in it.


I don't know how much you know about OCD but it is basically an anxiety response to thoughts. You give a value to certain thoughts and have an anxiety response to them. ACT is basically mindfulness (attention to the present moment) and acceptance of thoughts. Attention to the present is awesome for OCD because you are either stuck in the present or the future and mindfulness gets you out of that cycle. Acceptance of thoughts is hard sometimes but it is kind of a daily practice. That along with Exposure Response Prevention therapy has changed my life. What are you looking for a therapist for?


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## soulpotato (Jan 22, 2013)

Pooh Bear said:


> I don't know how much you know about OCD but it is basically an anxiety response to thoughts.


Thank you for the information! It's great to hear that you have had such success with it. I'm not pursuing it to treat OCD, though I actually do have some "mild" OCD - both behaviors and obsessive thoughts. And of course anxiety just makes everything worse, and I have lots of anxiety. My current therapist's only solution was to offer medication, which I declined. Because I'm starting with my larger problems and working my way down. 



Pooh Bear said:


> What are you looking for a therapist for?


I do actually have a therapist already, but ST and ACT are apparently not in her repertoire. I had heard that both ST and ACT could be used to treat BPD, maybe even more effectively than DBT in some ways, so that is why I am looking into them. I bought a couple of books today about them as well. If I think it will help, I will see if I can find a therapist to try either ACT or ST with (or both).


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## Pooh Bear (Dec 28, 2014)

Well I wish you the best of luck. You will have to keep us posted on how what you decide and how it's going.


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