Schema therapy originally developed as an expansion of CBT for clients who have problems that seem vague, chronic and pervasivewhich can make it difficult to define a precise goal for therapy. It may be long running problems in relationships, feelings of futility, or rigid and self-defeating life patterns. Schema therapy addresses not only sets of symptoms – depression, anxiety, panic attacks and addictions – but also underlying schemas, or controlling beliefs.  

Schema therapy integrates and blends techniques from several different forms of therapy within a unifying framework, where cognitive techniques are combined with alternative techniques. There is a strong emphasis on understanding the origins of the problem, how destructive life patterns currently affect you and on acquiring more adaptive coping skills.   

A schema can be defined as a deeply ingrained belief about the self and the surrounding world, learned early in life. Schemas determine how we think, feel, act and relate to others, they are central to our sense of self. When our emotional needs have not been met it leads to the development of schemas, which in their turn create negative life patterns. These life patterns are destructive and keep us from attaining the results we desire.

In schema therapy we work together to identify which schemas we might have developed, to gain an intellectual as well as an emotional understanding of these, and to replace self destructive life patterns with more functional ones in order to obtain a higher sense of harmony and balance.

Suggested reading

Reinventing your life and feel great again
Jeffrey Young & Janet Klosko, Penguin, 1994

Emotional Alchemy, How the Mind can heal the Heart
Tara Bennett-Coleman

Links