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Schema Therapy

Schema therapy (ST) is an integrative approach that brings together elements from cognitive behavioral therapy, attachment and object relations theories, and Gestalt and experiential therapies. It was introduced by Jeff Young in 1990 and has been developed and refined since then. Schema therapy is considered an effective way of conceptualizing and treating personality disorders. Rafaeli, Bernstein, and Young (2011) and Jacob and Arntz (2013) describe some of the distinguishing features of schema therapy.
  • ST places more emphasis than traditional CBT upon the development of current symptoms.
  • ST emphasizes the therapist–patient relationship and its potential for corrective influence.
  • ST aims to help patients understand their core emotional needs and to learn ways of meeting those needs adaptively.
  • ST focuses extensively on the processing of memories of aversive childhood experiences, making use of experiential techniques to change negative emotions related to such memories.
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Boundaries - Self-Monitoring Record

Developing self-monitoring skills teaches clients to systematically observe and record specific targets such as their own thoughts, body feelings, emo ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/boundaries-self-monitoring-record

Core Belief Magnet Metaphor

Core beliefs (schemas) are self-sustaining. They act to 'attract' confirmatory evidence and 'repel' (or distort) disconfirmatory evidence. This inform ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/core-belief-magnet-metaphor

How Trauma Can Affect You (CYP)

Trauma can result in a wide variety of symptoms, experiences, and behaviors. As well as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), prevalence rates of oth ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/how-trauma-can-affect-you-cyp

How Your Past Affects Your Present (Schema Therapy)

Schema therapy posits that many longstanding psychological difficulties stem from unmet core emotional needs, the early maladaptive schemas (EMS) they ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/how-your-past-affects-your-present-schema-therapy

Interpersonal Beliefs And Styles

Interpersonal issues and relationship problems form an important part of what clients bring to therapy: they might present as clients’ current conce ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/interpersonal-beliefs-and-styles

Reciprocal CBT Formulation

CBT therapists often describe finding it difficult to apply CBT skills when clients bring relational problems to therapy. Familiar methods of visu ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/reciprocal-cbt-formulation

Schema Bias

Core beliefs (schemas) are self-sustaining. They act to 'attract' confirmatory evidence and 'repel' or 'distort' disconfirmatory evidence. This inform ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/schema-bias

Schema Formulation

Beck's cognitive model proposes that cognition and perception in the here-and-now are influenced by our 'schemas', which shape our perception and info ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/schema-formulation

Schema Metaphors

Core beliefs (schemas) are self-sustaining. They act to 'attract' confirmatory evidence and 'repel' or 'distort' disconfirmatory evidence. This inform ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/schema-metaphors

Unhelpful Thinking Styles (Archived)

NOTE: Two improved versions of this resource are available here: Cognitive Distortions – Unhelpful Thinking Styles (Common) and Cognitive Disto ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/unhelpful-thinking-styles-archived

Unmet Emotional Needs

Unmet emotional needs can give rise to early maladaptive schemas, and other forms of maladaptive coping. This Unmet Emotional Needs handout forms part ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/unmet-emotional-needs

What Are Schemas?

Schema therapy posits that psychological difficulties stem from early maladaptive schemas (EMS) and peoples’ characteristic responses to them, refer ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/what-are-schemas

What Is Imagery Rescripting?

Unwanted images are a feature common to a variety of problems including PTSD and depression. Imagery rescripting is an evidence-based treatment techni ... https://www.psychologytools.com/resource/what-is-imagery-rescripting

Links to external resources

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Assessment

  • Young Schema Questionnaire – L2 (YSQ-L2) link

Information Handouts

Information (Professional)

  • A client’s guide to schema-focused cognitive therapy | David Bricker, Jeffrey Young: Shcema Therapy Institute
  • An introductory guide to Schema Therapy: adapted for use with the YSQ-R | David Bricker, Jeffrey Young, Ozgur Yalcin | 2023

Presentations

  • Using schemas and schema modes as a basis for formulation and treatment planning in schema therapy | David Edwards

Websites

Worksheets

What Is Schema Therapy?

Assumptions of ST

  • Everybody has emotional needs that are universal and present from childhood. These needs include: safety, stability, nurturance, acceptance, autonomy, competence, identity, expression, spontaneity, and for a world with realistic limits.
  • Psychological health is the ability to get one’s needs met in an adaptive manner.
  • During childhood people develop schemas—broad organizing principles—which help to guide them in making sense of their life and experiences. These are elaborated and developed over the lifespan. Schemas work as ‘shortcuts’—they help us to come quickly to what we think is likely to be true saving us from having to think /process every detail. They are not always accurate.
  • Some schemas—particularly those acquired from toxic or traumatic childhood experiences where the young person’s needs were not met to a significant degree—are described as early maladaptive schemas and are responsible for difficulties relating to other people, personality disorders, and some mental health problems.
  • Young, Klosko, and Weishaar (2003) defined early maladaptive schemas as:
    • a broad, pervasive theme or pattern;
    • composed of memories, emotions, cognitions, and bodily sensations;
    • regarding oneself and one’s relationships with others;
    • developed during childhood or adolescence;
    • elaborated throughout one’s lifetime; and
    • dysfunctional to a significant degree.
  • Four types of life experiences lead to the development of early maladaptive schemas:
    • when the child’s early environment is missing something important such as love, stability, or understanding;
    • when the child is harmed or victimized (when the need for safety was unmet) and develops schemas which reflect danger, threat, or pain;
    • when the child is coddled/​indulged/​overprotected and did not receive sufficient freedom or autonomy;
    • when the child selectively identifies with the thoughts, feelings, experiences, and behaviors of an influential adult such as a parent.
  • Schemas lead us to attend to and remember information that is consistent with the schema, and behaviorally draw us to familiar events and environments. Thus they self-perpetuate.
  • Early maladaptive schemas become dysfunctional because they lead us to maintain particular types of attachments, relationships, or environments, and because they lead us to perceive situations as toxic/​threatening even when they are not.
  • People tend to cope with their early maladaptive schemas in ways that reinforce them, including:
    • schema surrender, which involves giving in to ones’ schemas;
    • schema avoidance, which means avoiding situations or people which trigger our schemas;
    • schema overcompensation which means doing the opposite of one’s schemas.
  • Whereas early maladaptive schemas can be thought of as relatively stable traits, schema modes describe emotional states, schemas, and coping relations that are active at a particular time. People are able to switch between modes during their day or week. There are four types of mode:
    • child modes (the vulnerable child mode is of the focus of therapy);
    • maladaptive coping modes;
    • dysfunctional internalized parent modes;
    • a healthy adult mode which is the part of the self that is capable, strong, and well-functioning.

Types of Early Maladaptive Schemas

Young and colleagues have identified 18 early maladaptive schemas, which can be assessed using the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ). They include:

  • abandonment/​instability
  • mistrust/​abuse
  • emotional deprivation
  • defectiveness/​shame
  • social isolation/​alienation
  • dependence/​incompetence
  • vulnerability to harm or illness
  • enmeshment / underdeveloped self
  • failure
  • entitlement/​grandiosity
  • insufficient self-control/​self-discipline
  • subjugation
  • self-sacrifice
  • approval-seeking/​recognition-seeking
  • negativity/​pessimism
  • emotional inhibition
  • unrelenting standards/​hypercriticalness
  • punitiveness

Procedures and Techniques of ST

  • Schema therapy involves the task of limited reparenting in which the therapy relationship is one which recognizes, articulates, validates, and (to some extent) fulfils the needs of the patient.
  • The second ‘central pillar’ of schema therapy is empathic confrontation (Young et al., 2003) in which the therapist empathically, and nonjudgmentally confronts the patient on their maladaptive behaviors and cognitions, emphasizing their self-defeating nature.
  • Schema therapy case conceptualization is used to describe patient symptoms, identify current triggers, propose mechanisms for the emergence and maintenance of problems, and provides a ‘story’ about how the patients problems might be resolved.
  • Schema therapy makes extensive use of guided imagery as both an assessment tool, and as a technique for intervention.
  • Cognitive techniques used within schema therapy include: data collection, reframing/​reattribution, schema flashcards and diaries, and schema dialogues.
  • Emotion-focused techniques used with schema therapy include: role-play / chair work, and guided imagery.
  • Behavioral techniques used with schema therapy include: rehearsal of adaptive behavior in imagery or role-play, behavioral homework, and rewarding adaptive behavior.

References

  • Jacob, G. A., & Arntz, A. (2013). Schema therapy for personality disorders—A review. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 6(2), 171–185.
  • Rafaeli, E., Bernstein, D. P., & Young, J. (2011). Schema therapy. CBT Distinctive Features Series. New York: Routledge.
  • Young, J. E., & Klosko, J. S. (1993). Reinventing your life: The breakthrough program to end negative behavior and feel great again. New York: Dutton.
  • Young, J. E., Klosko, J. S., & Weishaar, M. E. (2003). Schema therapy: A practitioner’s guide. New York: Guilford Press.