Schema Therapy

What is a schema?

A schema is a pervasive ‘lens’ through which we interpret life. It is like putting on a particular set of glasses that taints the way we see things. These interpretations are made up of a cluster of specific thoughts, emotions, beliefs, bodily sensations, and neurobiological reactions.

Schemas can be adaptive (positive) and maladaptive (negative). They form in early life and remain stable over time which means they become deeply engrained ways in which we interpret ourselves, others and the world. Adaptive schemas are protective against mental illness whereas maladaptive schemas are widely recognised as underlying long-term psychological problems. Examples of positive schemas include social belonging, self-compassion, emotional openness, healthy boundaries and realistic expectations. Maladaptive schemas include defectiveness, abandonment, unrelenting standards, failure or entitlement.

There are many factors that contribute to schema development including whether or not our core emotional needs were adequately met in early life, our temperament (personality traits), the cultures we grew up in, our birth order and the parenting we received.

What is schema therapy?

Schema therapy was developed in the 1980s by Jeffrey E. Young to address the therapy gap between those people who benefited from CBT and retained these benefits over time and those whose problems either relapsed or remained unchanged. Consequently, it is a longer-term psychotherapy focused on deeper transformative experiences for sustained changes to longstanding problems. In schema therapy the relationship between client and therapist is explicitly used as the vehicle for change to bring about emotionally healing experiences.

Is schema therapy right for you?

The initial evidence-base for schema-therapy’s effectiveness was formed from offering schema therapy to people experiencing persistent significant problems over time in how they relate to themselves and others, most specifically those with a diagnosis of 'borderline personality disorder'.

With time, popularity and further research, schema therapy now has growing clinical evidence for a wider range of difficulties including relapsing depression, eating disorders, trauma, persistent relationship conflict and relapsing anxiety disorders including OCD.

What can you expect from schema therapy?

Schema therapy works with both adaptive and maladaptive schemas. Key tasks include:

• identifying key unmet emotional needs, the origins of these and the maladaptive schemas that developed as a result
• identifying and changing unhelpful behaviours that reinforce negative schemas (e.g. avoiding things if you feel a failure or rejecting others to avoid abandonment).
• forming new adaptive schemas and using the positive schemas you already have to change unhelpful interpretations of events
• developing new skills to help you get your emotional needs met in an effective way (e.g. skills in assertiveness, self compassion or healthy self-control)

Techniques used in schema are ‘experiential’ including imagery, chair work, role-play and other proven techniques that enable profound changes in the way you relate to yourself, others and life at a deeper emotional level.