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Evaluation ViewAttendees 21

Mini Workshop

Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders

Mini Workshop 11 - How to Treat Clinical Perfectionism Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Friday, November 15, 2024
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EST
Location: Grand Ballroom D, Level 5, Downtown Marriott
Earn 1.5 Credit
Keywords: ACT (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy), Transdiagnostic, OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
Level of Familiarity: Basic to Moderate
Recommended Readings: Ong, C. W., Lee, E. B., Krafft, J., Terry, C. L., Barrett, T. S., Levin, M. E., & Twohig, M. P. (2019). A randomized controlled trial of acceptance and commitment therapy for clinical perfectionism. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2019.100444,   Pinto, A., Dargani, N., Wheaton, M. G., Cervoni, C., Rees, C. S., & Egan, S. J. (2017). Perfectionism in obsessive-compulsive disorder and related disorders: What should treating clinicians know? Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 12, 102–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2017.01.001,   Egan, S. J., Wade, T. D., & Shafran, R. (2011). Perfectionism as a transdiagnostic process: A clinical review. Clinical Psychology Review, 31(2), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.04.009,   ,  
Clinical perfectionism is defined as rigid adherence to unrealistically high standards and basing self-worth on ability to meet those standards (Shafran & Mansell, 2001). It is a transdiagnostic risk and maintaining factor for several clinical problems, including obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, eating disorders, anxiety, and depression (Egan et al., 2011; Pinto et al., 2017). Furthermore, perfectionism negatively impacts treatment outcomes, interfering with clients’ ability to benefit from evidence-based treatments (Löw et al., 2020; Pinto et al., 2017). Thus, it is important to know how to effectively target perfectionism in treatment. There is a broad evidence base for the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for various presentations, including those related to perfectionism (e.g., anxiety, depression; Gloster et al., 2020), and preliminary evidence supports using ACT to treat perfectionism (Ong et al., 2019).

This Mini Workshop will provide an overview of how to use ACT to treat clinical perfectionism. The first part of the workshop will be an introduction to ACT and its hypothesized process of change, psychological flexibility. Then, presenters will provide an ACT-informed case conceptualization of clinical perfectionism. Finally, the presenters will present ACT exercises that target and undermine perfectionism and provide examples of how to adapt exercises based on client identities. The final part of the workshop will be case discussion and small-group practice to help attendees learn how to use ACT techniques and generalize skills to real-life cases.

Outline:
• Clinical perfectionism is a transdiagnostic risk and maintaining factor that can negatively impact treatment outcomes
• Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), which targets psychological flexibility, may be a useful treatment for the rigid patterns observed in perfectionism
• This workshop will teach attendees how to use ACT to assess and treat perfectionism, using experiential exercises and case discussion

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, the learner will be able to:
  1. Identify clinical perfectionism and its function in clients.
  2. Describe psychological flexibility and how it relates to perfectionism.
  3. Develop an ACT-informed case conceptualization of perfectionism.
  4. Use ACT techniques/exercises to treat unhelpful perfectionism in clients.
  5. Long-term Goal: Recognize signs of perfectionism based on their function
  6. Long-term Goal: Integrate ACT principles into treatment with clients with perfectionism