The ACE technique and how can it help with OCD

At the recent IOCDF conference for OCD in Denver, Anthony Pinto, PhD, the clinical director of the Northwell Health OCD Center, shared a relatively simple technique for redirecting oneself during the onset of obsessive symptoms.  

The basic principle is that we need to anchor ourselves back to our real lives when an obsessive cycle hits.  It is easy for those of us with OCD, or Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCDP), Dr. Pinto’s specialty, to float off into the ocean of angst and chaos.  Dropping anchor keeps our ship steady in place while the disquiet and the discomfort of dysregulation hits.  

Dr. Pinto, and most OCD specialists, agree that we can’t actually stop the intrusive thoughts that cause the storm.  Our intrusive thoughts are hardwired into us from our core fear.  We may greatly reduce these intrusive thoughts over time once we are resisting our compulsions regularly.  However, we do not have the power to do so at will. 

What we can control is how we interact with our intrusive thoughts and how we field the distress, or the storm of discomfort, that perhaps ensues.

Dr. Pinto suggests dropping anchor with A.C.E.:

A - Acknowledge the Storm

C - Come into your body through a grounding technique

E - Engage in a healthy, diversionary activity 

It is truly that simple.  We do not try to fight the intrusive thought, we do not try to suppress any emotions that arise.  We notice the storm, but drop our anchor with some basic mindfulness techniques.  We become somatically aware – in other words, we move from the spinning of the mind into the concreteness of the body.  Then we redirect our minds and bodies with an alternative task (not a compulsion!) that signals a moving on.  

Intrusive thoughts and the discomfort they provoke are not worthy of our rumination, and A.C.E. allows us to gently but firmly move forward without repressing.  

To learn more about OCD Therapy, give us a call at Kairos Wellness Collective.