What is Schema Therapy?

Schema Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that helps people who are stuck in recurring & unhelpful patterns of emotion, beliefs & behaviour. It provides a way of understanding our reactions & making sense of how these may have been shaped by past experiences. Schema therapy goes into more depth than traditional cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). It tends to be a longer-term therapy suited to people with more complex difficulties.

Recognizing emotional needs

The approach recognises that people’s emotional needs in childhood can go unmet for different reasons. While needs are clearly unmet with experiences like abuse & neglect, sometimes difficulties can result from other situations: For example, a young person’s needs may be poorly matched by the care available to them, even when no harm was intended.

What are ‘schema’?

This therapy is based on the idea that we grow up developing a set of ‘schema’ - these are ways of viewing the world & beliefs which shape the way that we end up thinking, behaving & relating to others as adults. We can think of schema a bit like lenses through which we view the world & which organise our responses.

Understanding our schema patterns

Becoming aware of our schema & how we manage them is the first step to change. I’ll help you identify your main schema patterns. We’ll work together to make sense of how these have developed in your life & led to different ways of coping. You might be invited to complete some questionnaires to help with this. We’ll also explore how different facets of yourself are involved in how you function.

What does schema therapy involve?

Schema Therapy is a talking therapy that combines aspects of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy, Gestalt therapy & psychoanalytical thinking into one form. Drawing on a range of methods, this therapy aims to help you address the impact of having different needs unmet in your childhood. It involves techniques that enable you to explore & change the patterns that you are in. For example, this might involve having a go at different activities & exercises to help different aspects of yourself have a voice. We’ll work on managing these different parts together so that you can feel more whole & balanced as a person.

I’ll support you in gently challenging unhelpful schema. The professional therapeutic relationship that we develop is a particularly important component for healing in this way of working.