OCD Treatment Through Storytelling: A Strategy for Successful Therapy PDF
Preview OCD Treatment Through Storytelling: A Strategy for Successful Therapy
OCD Treatment Through Storytelling This page intentionally left blank OCD Treatment Through Storytelling A Strategy for Successful Therapy Allen H. Weg 1 2011 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2011 by Oxford University Press Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. ____________________________________________ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Weg, Allen Howard. OCD treatment through storytelling : a strategy for successful therapy/Allen H. Weg. p. ; cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-19-538356-0 1. Obsessive-compulsive disorder—Treatment. 2. Exposure therapy. I. Title. [DNLM: 1. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder—therapy. 2. Cognitive Therapy—methods. 3. Implosive Therapy—methods. 4. Narration. WM 176 W 411o 2011] RC533.W442 2011 616.85’227—dc22 2010020138 ____________________________________________ 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper To my mother, Sylvia Mauskopf Weg, a survivor of Auschwitz, who has courageously shared the most diffi cult stories there are to tell. This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments This book is the result of over two decades worth of learning about and working with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The sto- ries written herein developed naturally out of a need to better commu- nicate to others the complex, confusing, and always changing world of OCD. But I needed to fi rst learn about this world for myself before I could effectively teach it to others. For this, I need to thank the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF), until recently known as the Obsessive Compulsive Foundation. It was at this organization’s annual conferences that I was fi rst introduced to the leaders in the fi eld of research and therapy for OCD and to the ever-growing number of texts and journal articles that continue to clarify our understanding of this disorder and offer ever-newer techniques and therapies to better treat it. Many of these professionals have become my respected colleagues, and I continue to learn and get inspiration from them. It was also at these conferences that I fi rst encountered large numbers of people struggling with OCD: children there with their families, adolescents trying to manage an already diffi cult life stage encumbered unimaginably by this disorder, as well as adults who had suffered in silence and isolation for many years. It was at these conferences that I saw hopelessness turn to hopefulness, where I saw impotence turn into empowerment. It was there that I fi rst experienced the warmth, love, pride, and strength that constitute the OCD community and that inspired me to make treating this disorder a large part of my life’s work. I would also like to thank the members of the Board of Directors of OCD NJ, an affi liate of the IOCDF, especially its president and trea- surer, Ina and Julian Spero, who have dedicated the last 12 years of their postretirement lives to the support of the OCD community in the state vii viii acknowledgments of New Jersey and to the education of the general community about this disorder. I would also like to thank Board member Dr. Rachel Strohl, who functioned as my proofreader for this work. Next, I wish to thank the publishers at Oxford University Press for their willingness to accept the proposal for this book, even though I was a relatively untested author and the content of the book was somewhat untraditional in its focus. I n addition, this book could not have been written were it not for the many clients and their families who have shared their struggles with OCD in their therapy sessions with me. It has been their willingness to “fl y into the darkness” that has truly been the inspiration for the stories in this book. For a look inside the world of OCD, there have been no greater teachers. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their love, support, and patience. My wife Nadine has had to share me all these years not only with my clients but with this particular labor of love. My children, Ethan and Arielle, now teenagers, hardly remember a time when I was not actively working on this book. Please know that I love you all and appreciate every sacrifi ce you have made. Foreword My father was a great storyteller. He never failed to have a story for any occasion or any audience, and I never tired of his stories. I could hear the same ones over and over again, and it was like hearing them for the fi rst time. Not until later in my life did I realize that my father was not just entertaining when he told these stories. Through them, he not only made people laugh, he also made them feel comfort- able, like insiders. Telling stories made people feel as though he under- stood what it was like to be in their shoes; his stories earned their trust. They could relate to him, and they felt he could relate to them. Most of all, the stories offered lessons about my father’s values, his business principles, and his expectations of himself and others. As a result, they stuck with people. Even now, years after his death, people remember stories my father told them in a wide array of venues—business meet- ings, family gatherings, parties, funerals, and weddings. For them, my father’s stories are clear and vivid, as if they just heard them yesterday. I fully believe this is one of the reasons people liked and trusted him so inherently. I was reminded of my father and the power of his stories as I read OCD Treatment Through Storytelling. Allen Weg guides us through the therapeutic process of treating OCD in a truly unique way. By using stories to help clients and their families understand both the experience of the illness as well as the treatment process, Allen brings us a new approach to helping clients struggling with OCD. I have known Allen for some years, both in my role as Program Director at the OCD Institute at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts and through my work as the President of the International OCD Foundation. Allen often refers clients to us at McLean, and I have come ix
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