I was first introduced to Schema Therapy at an eating disorder conference in Adelaide in 2012. I recall at the time thinking that the approach made so much sense to me, but I did not pursue it further at that stage. It was not until 2015 that I completed basic training in Schema Therapy and the love affair began.
I then went on to become an advanced schema therapist and supervising in this space, as well as incorporating Schema Therapy into my sessions with people with an eating disorder and a variety of other presenting problems.
Here are some of the reasons I find it such a helpful therapeutic approach:
1. The formulation makes sense
I find the way Schema Therapy formulates and conceptualizes presenting issues so helpful. It is especially helpful when a client presents with many different presenting issues. For example, an eating disorder and borderline personality disorder and substance abuse, and generalized anxiety. You can use Schema Therapy to address the core underlying issues, schemas and unmet psychological needs that are driving all these presenting issues, without having to address each issue one at a time. In short, it helps to prevent you playing a game of whack amole with the presenting issues.
2. It has a focus on meeting core psychological and emotional needs in the here and now
Schema Therapy is not just about symptom reduction, although this certainly happens. Schema Therapy helps clients to understand that schemas are formed when core psychological needs are not consistently met in earlier life and how they then develop coping strategies to reduce schema activation and have emotional needs met. It is rewarding helping clients to become aware that they can have emotional needs met in a more adaptive way in the here and now, which reduces reliance on coping mechanisms such as eating disorders, drinking, etc.
3. It bridges the gap between the past and the here and now
I personally believe that we do not do anything in the here and now for no reason. We have learnt to cope with difficult situations and painful schemas by using coping strategies that made sense in the past at the time the coping strategies developed. Schema Therapy helps people to have more compassion for why they may respond in certain ways in the here and now but also helps them find new ways to have their needs met.
4. It uses parts work and experiential techniques
Having a model that works with parts of a person and one that uses experiential techniques to achieve change has been life changing for my work. These techniques allow clients to connect with their emotions and bridge the gap between their cognitive understandings to achieve change on a deeper level. It is amazing to watch clients feel their experience and then make real change from there.
5. It taught me how to have difficult conversations with clients
In Schema Therapy we frequently use a concept called Empathic Confrontation. This concept allows therapists to deliver difficult but important feedback to clients in an empathic manner, demonstrating understanding of why the client might be engaging in a certain behaviour or doing something challenging interpersonally, but also pointing out how it is creating issues in the here and now and preventing them from meeting their goals or having their needs met. I find that clients usually respond well to empathic confrontation, stating that no one has ever provided them with clarity on why people might react to them in the way they do.
6. It is fun!
I think it is important for therapy to be fun at times for both the client and the therapist. I find that Schema Therapy allows me to engage my own create part. Talking to chairs, role playing through imagery and naming parts of self, are some of the ways that Schema Therapy can make the daunting process of therapy more fun.
7. My clients respond well to Schema Therapy
Most importantly, my clients let me know that they find Schema Therapy very helpful in building insight into why they do what they do, healing schemas developed in the past and making meaningful changes in the here and now. Schema Therapy is a relational therapy, using the power of the therapeutic relationship to achieve change and form strong attachments, something clients report finding very helpful.
If you are interested in learning more about incorporating Schema Therapy into your existing practice, building confidence with experiential skills or becoming an accredited schema therapist, reach out to me.
