All human beings have strivings towards connection, understanding, and growth. We are shaped by a deep desire to be known, seen, and recognized as we strive to come into contact with parts of ourselves that are frozen or stuck or suffering. The more our strivings are thwarted by deprivation, neglect, trauma or loss, the more profound and painful our longings can become. We all have a fundamental need to grow, to heal, and become “our best selves”. The result can be a sense of vitality and renewed energy.
The best neuroscience teaches us that we each have an inbuilt capacity for growth and healing (Daniel Siegel, 2010). A positive, responsive, safe relationship produces chemicals and hormones, which enhance the regulation of emotions, stress and neural firing. The ability of the brain to change itself, coupled with the power of a safe therapeutic relationship, promises fulfillment in psychotherapy, changing feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness, or general unhappiness for a lifetime, linking us to a path towards greater peace. Schema Therapy recognises all aspects of neurophysiology in its approach...
Schema therapy is especially helpful in treating chronic depression and anxiety, eating disorders, relationship difficulties. It aids in the prevention of relapse among substance abusers. Schema therapy enables changes in clients who feel hopeless about his/her self-destructive patterns, because these problematic behaviours seem so entrenched that they appear to the clients suffering, to be part of their identity. Schema therapy was developed by Dr.Jeffrey E. Young, of the Cognitive Therapy Center of New York. The negative beliefs can lead to low self-esteem, lack of connection to others, problems expressing feelings and emotions, and excessive worrying about basic safety issues. The beliefs can also create strong attractions to inappropriate partners and lead to dissatisfying careers. Through a series of assessments you will learn to recognize what schemas and problematic coping styles affect you, understand the origins, and learn how to make lasting changes in your life.
Many patients who begin schema therapy have spent years in other types of therapies, gaining valuable insight but frustrated by their lack of progress. Schema therapy provides a straightforward, direct approach that goes beyond getting "in-touch" with your feelings. You work through structured assignments outside sessions that help you continually confront your negative beliefs. In each session, you work with your therapist to identify when your unhealthy patterns are repeating, and “empathically confront” them with the reasons for change. Your therapist supplies you with a partial antidote to meet your needs that may not have been met in your childhood.
Schema therapy is outlined in the ‘Reinventing Your Life, by Jeffrey Young, Ph.D. and Janet Klosko, Ph.D.
What are the "belief systems" of schema therapy?
Disconnection & Rejection+
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Abandonment/Instability:
You expect instability, unreliability, or loss of anyone you are close to. -
Mistrust/Abuse:
You expect others will hurt, abuse, humiliate, cheat, lie, manipulate, or take advantage of you. -
Emotional Deprivation:
You believe that your primary emotional needs for nurturance, empathy, affection, and protection will never be met by other people. -
Defectiveness/Shame:
You feel that you are defective, bad, unwanted, inferior, or invalid. -
Social Isolation/Alienation:
You feel isolated from the rest of the world, different or not part of any group or community.
Impaired Autonomy & Performance+
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Dependence/Incompetence:
You feel unable to handle your everyday responsibilities competently without considerable help from others. -
Vulnerability to Harm or Illness:
You feel on the verge of a major financial, medical, natural, or criminal catastrophe, without evidence to support the belief. Focus may be on a medical condition, emotionally losing control, or an external area (airplanes crashing, elevators). -
Enmeshment/Undeveloped Self:
You are excessively emotionally involved with a partner or parents at the expense of your individuality. -
Failure:
You believe that you have failed, will inevitably fail, or are fundamentally inadequate relative to peers.
Impaired Limits+
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Entitlement/Grandiosity:
You believe that you are superior to other people and not bound by the rules of reciprocity in normal situations. -
Insufficient Self-Control/Self-Discipline:
You find it continually difficult or refuse to practice sufficient self-control and frustration tolerance to achieve your goals, or to restrain an excessive expression of your emotions and impulses.
Other-Directedness +
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Subjugation:
You feel coerced to surrender your needs and emotions to other people, avoiding anger, retaliation, or abandonment. -
Self-Sacrifice:
You voluntarily meet the needs of other people at the expense of your own gratification. -
Approval-Seeking/Recognition Seeking:
You emphasize gaining approval, recognition, or attention from other people, or fitting in at the expense of developing a secure and true sense of yourself.
Over vigilance & Inhibition+
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Negativity/Pessimism:
You experience a pervasive, lifelong focus on the negative aspects of life (pain, death, loss, disappointment, etc.) -
Emotional Inhibition:
You excessively inhibit spontaneous action, feelings, or communication, avoiding disapproval by others or feelings of shame, or the possibility of losing control of your impulses. -
Unrelenting Standards/Hyper-criticalness:
You feel that you and other people must strive to meet very high internal standards of behavior and performance, usually to avoid criticism. -
Punitiveness:
You feel that people, including yourself, should be punished harshly for mistakes.