Abandonment
Schema therapy posits that psychological difficulties stem from early maladaptive schemas (EMS) and clients’ characteristic responses to them, referred to as ‘coping styles’. This Abandonment information handout forms part of the Psychology Tools Schema series. It is designed to help clients and therapists to work more effectively with common early maladaptive schemas (EMS).
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Introduction & Theoretical Background
A brief introduction to schema therapy
Schema therapy is an integrative therapy initially developed for treating complex, longstanding, and diffuse psychological difficulties. It combines cognitive behavioral, attachment, gestalt, object relationships, constructivist, psychoanalytic, and neurobiological approaches within a unifying conceptual model (Young, 1990, 1999; Young et al., 2003). Additional interventions have since been outlined, such as EMDR (Young et al., 2002), mindfulness (van Vreeswijk et al., 2014), and body-focused methods (Briedis & Startup, 2020). Schema therapy expands on CBT by emphasizing the developmental origins of psychological problems, incorporating relational and experiential interventions, and targeting the maladaptive coping styles that perpetuate these difficulties (Young et al., 2003).
Early maladaptive schemas
Schemas are enduring and foundational mental structures that play an essential role in cognitive processing, enabling humans to represent the complexities of the world (Rafaeli et al., 2016). By simplifying reality, they make the vast array of information we encounter manageable, so
Therapist Guidance
"Many people struggle with abandonment, and it sounds as though this might be relevant to you too. Would you be willing to explore this schema more with me?"
Clinicians might begin by providing psychoeducation about abandonment and EMS more generally:
- Schemas are negative themes and patterns that start in your childhood and continue throughout your life. Some are very common.
- Schemas usually get stronger as time passes, becoming the negative filters people use to understand and make predictions about the world. You could think of them as dark sunglasses – they colour and distort our experiences in unhelpful ways.
- Schemas operate ‘behind the scenes’: we’re not usually aware of them or when they are active. However, with practice, you can become more aware of them. It is a bit like a theatre – you can learn to bring your backstage schemas to the main stage.
- One common schema is
References And Further Reading
Ahmadpanah, M., Astinsadaf, S., Akhondi, A., Haghighi, M., Bahmani, D. S., Nazaribadie, M., Jahangard, L., Holsboer-Trachsler, E., & Brand, S. (2017). Early maladaptive schemas of emotional deprivation, social isolation, shame and abandonment are related to a history of suicide attempts among patients with major depressive disorders. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 77, 71-79. DOI: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2017.05.008.
Alba, J., Calvete, E., Wante, L., Van Beveren, M. L., & Braet, C. (2018). Early maladaptive schemas as moderators of the association between bullying victimization and depressive symptoms in adolescents. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 42, 24-35. DOI: 10.1007/s10608-017-9874-5.
Arntz, A., Rijkeboer, M., Chan, E., Fassbinder, E., Karaosmanoglu, A., Lee, C. W., & Panzeri, M. (2021). Towards a reformulated theory underlying schema therapy: Position paper of an international workgroup. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 45, 1007-1020. DOI: 10.1007/s10608-021-10209-5.
Askari, A. (2021). New concepts of schema therapy: The six coping styles. Amir Askari.
Askari, I. (2019). Early maladaptive schemas and cognitive-behavioral