Is schema therapy right for me?

Schema Therapy may be for you if you answer Yes to any of the following questions:

Do you feel trapped in some area of your life that you don't seem able to change?

Do you have strong feelings of inadequacy, loneliness, sadness, dependence on others, trouble
choosing appropriate partners, or being out of touch with your feelings?

Have you had chronic, long-term, or recurring anxiety, depression, eating disorders, addictive
behaviors, and/or rigid patterns of thought and behavior?

Do you have vague but pervasive existential problems, such as feeling like life is meaningless or
feeling a little depressed on a regular basis?

Do you have frequent relationship problems that show repetitive patterns, such as choosing the
wrong partner; getting into relationships where you always feel criticized, deprived, or controlled;
or always fighting and feeling angry?

Have you been diagnosed with borderline personality and have successfully completed "DBT" but
still feel unhappy?

Have you made progress in CBT and still feel like underlying issues are getting in the way of lasting
change?

What is schema therapy?

Schema Therapy is an integrative approach, based on the principles of cognitive behavioral

therapy and then expanded to include techniques and concepts from other psychotherapies.
Schema therapy can help you change ingrained, self-destructive life patterns, or schemas, using
cognitive, behavioral, and emotion-focused techniques. Schema therapy focuses on the
relationship with the therapist, daily life outside of therapy, and childhood experiences that led to
the development of maladaptive schemas.

The four main concepts in the schema therapy model are: early maladaptive schemas, schema
domains, coping styles, and schema modes.

The first 18 maladaptive schemas are self-destructive themes or patterns that we continue to
repeat throughout our lives.

The 18 schemas are grouped into five broad schema domains: 1) Disengagement and Rejection, 2)
Impaired Autonomy and Performance, 3) Impaired Boundaries, 4) Excessive Responsibility and
Standards, and 5) Supervigilance and Inhibition.

Coping styles refer to the ways in which a child adapts to harmful childhood experiences. For
example, some give in to their schemes; some find ways to block or escape the pain; while others
defend or overcompensate. Since this is how you learned to deal with pain as a child, it's natural
that you'll continue using these unhelpful coping styles as an adult.

Schema modes are the moment-to-moment emotional states and coping responses that we all
experience. Our maladaptive schema modes are activated by life situations to which we are overly
sensitive (our “emotional buttons”). Many schema modes lead us to overreact or underreact to
situations and therefore act in ways that end up hurting ourselves or others.

You can learn more about schema therapy by reading David Bricker's Client's Guide to Schema
Therapy. PhD, and Jeffrey Young, PhD of the Schema Therapy Institute in New York.

Objectives of schema therapy

The goal of schema therapy is to help you meet your core emotional needs. The key steps to
achieve this involve learning to:

Identify the early maladaptive schemas that maintain your problems and see how they developed
in everyday situations.

Change dysfunctional beliefs and build healthier alternative beliefs, which can be used to combat
schemas.

Break maladaptive life patterns into manageable steps and change the coping styles that maintain
the patterns one step at a time.

Develop skills and experiences that create healthy thoughts, behaviors, and emotions.

Validate your unmet emotional needs, so you can meet your basic needs in everyday life.

How is schema therapy different from traditional cognitive behavioral therapy?

Compared to cognitive behavioral therapy, schema therapy probes more deeply into early life
experiences. It uses cognitive, behavioral, experiential and interpersonal techniques to promote
higher levels of affection in the sessions and is more long-term.

The therapeutic relationship is put to greater use as a means for change with the therapist
working directly and collaboratively with the client, to identify and modify any schema-driven
thoughts and feelings that are activated within or outside of the session.

By switching between past events and current problems, using imagery and role-playing, higher
levels of affect are activated. Using imagery and a detailed discussion of early life experiences,
clients can understand where the maladaptive schema originated and how it is maintained.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is often combined with schema therapy and focuses on what
traditional talk therapies tend to leave out: how to achieve meaningful change in the present, as
opposed to mere explanation or "insight." Both traditional cognitive behavioral therapy and
schema therapy are structured and systematic, helping you identify, challenge, and change core
beliefs and maladaptive coping styles.

While traditional cognitive behavioral therapy uses many guided discoveries to help you find the
answers yourself, schema therapy also employs a technique called empathic confrontation. The
schema therapist fully recognizes and validates distressing feelings and schema-based beliefs,
while pointing out negative behaviors or another more accurate view. This process serves to
challenge and modify negative thoughts and behaviors, which are rigidly intact.

What is the evidence that schema therapy works?

Schema therapy has been studied in many psychological problems and disorders. Click here to see
a summary of many of the research studies. A recent study showed that schema therapy is more
effective for a wide variety of personality disorders than many other types of therapy. Click here to
read about the study.
What are early maladaptive schemas?

Maslow's Hierarchy 1The most basic concept in schema therapy is an early maladaptive schema.
We define schemas as: “broad, pervasive themes about oneself and one's relationship with others,
developed during childhood and elaborated throughout life, and dysfunctional to a significant
degree.”

The first maladaptive schemas began with something our families or other children did to us that
harmed us in some way. We could have been abandoned, criticized, overprotected, emotionally or
physically abused, excluded or deprived. As a result, schemas developed that continue to color the
way we see ourselves, others, and the world. Maladaptive schemas can develop from early
childhood experiences that include:

The child who failed to satisfy his basic needs. The core emotional needs of every child include
security; stable foundation/predictability; love, affection and attention; acceptance and praise;
empathy and understanding; autonomy; realistic limits; validation of feelings and needs; and fun,
games and spontaneity.

The child who was traumatized by a very dominant, abusive or very critical parent.

The child who internalized the negative voice of a father figure. This can happen either because
the parent directly addresses the child in a punitive and critical manner or makes excessive
demands on a child, or because the child sees parents doing this to themselves. When the child
internalizes the parent's punitive, critical, or demanding voice, the child becomes an adult with
these schema modes.

The boy who got too much of a good thing. The child may have been overprotected,
overindicated, or given an excessive degree of freedom and autonomy without setting limits.

Schemes fight to stay alive. We distort our view of events in our lives to maintain the validity of
our schemas. Schemes can remain inactive until activated. Schemes are like tsunamis. They remain
dormant until an earthquake erupts beneath the surface to activate their scheme(s) and then
behave in ways that are extreme or inappropriate for the situation.

What are the 18 schemes?

DISCONNECTION AND REJECTION

1. ABANDONMENT / INSTABILITY

The perceived instability or unreliability of those available for support and connection.

It involves the feeling that significant others will not be able to continue to provide emotional
support, connection, strength, or practical protection because they are emotionally unstable and
unpredictable (e.g., angry outbursts), unreliable, or erratically present; because they will die
imminently; or because they will abandon the patient in favor of someone better.
2. MISTRUST/ABUSE

The expectation that others will hurt, abuse, humiliate, deceive, lie, manipulate, or take
advantage. It usually involves the perception that the harm is intentional or the result of
unjustified and extreme negligence. It may include the feeling that one always ends up being
deceived in relation to others or "getting the short end of the stick."

3. EMOTIONAL DEPRIVATION

Expectation that others will not adequately satisfy the desire for a normal degree of emotional
support. The three main forms of deprivation are:

TO. Nurturing deprivation: absence of attention, affection, warmth or companionship.

b. Deprivation of empathy: Absence of understanding, listening, self-disclosure, or mutual sharing

of others' feelings.

c. Deprivation of protection: absence of strength, direction or guidance from others.

4. DEFECTIVITY / SHAME

The feeling that one is defective, bad, unwanted, inferior, or invalid in important ways; or that
would be unpleasant to significant others if exposed. It may involve hypersensitivity to criticism,
rejection, and blame; self-consciousness, comparisons and insecurity around others; or a sense of
shame regarding perceived flaws. These defects may be private (e.g. E.g., selfishness, angry
impulses, unacceptable sexual desires) or public (e.g. e.g., undesirable physical appearance, social
discomfort)

5. ISOLATION / SOCIAL ALIENATION

The feeling of being isolated from the rest of the world, different from other people and/or not
being part of any group or community.

CERTAIN AUTONOMY AND PERFORMANCE

6. DEPENDENCY / INCOMPETENCE

Believing that one is unable to handle one's daily responsibilities competently without
considerable help from others (e.g., taking care of oneself, solving daily problems, exercising good
judgment, tackling new tasks, making good decisions). It often presents as helplessness.

7. VULNERABILITY TO INJURY OR DISEASE

Exaggerated fear that an imminent catastrophe will strike at any moment and that one will not be
able to avoid it. Fears focus on one or more of the following: (A) Medical catastrophes: for
example, heart attacks, AIDS; (B) Emotional catastrophes: for example, going crazy; (C) External
catastrophes: e.g. For example, elevator collapse, victims of criminals, plane crashes, earthquakes.
8. ENTRY / PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT Participation

Excessive emotional distress and closeness to one or more significant others (often parents), at the
expense of complete individualization or normal social development. It often involves the belief
that at least one of the entangled individuals cannot survive or be happy without the constant
support of the other. It may also include feelings of being stifled or merged with others OR
insufficient individual identity. Often experienced as a feeling of emptiness and hesitation, without
direction, or in extreme cases questioning one's existence.

9. FAILURE

The belief that one has failed, will inevitably fail, or is fundamentally inadequate relative to one's
peers, in areas of achievement (school, career, sports, etc.). It often involves beliefs that one is
stupid, inept, talentless, ignorant, of lower status, less successful than others, etc.

DETERMINED LIMITS

10. RIGHT / GRANDIOSITY

The belief that one is superior to other people; right to special rights and privileges; or not bound
by the rules of reciprocity that guide normal social interaction. It often involves the insistence that
one should be able to do or have whatever one wants, regardless of what is realistic, what others
consider reasonable, or the cost to others; Or an exaggerated focus on superiority (e.g. e.g., being
among the most successful, famous and rich), to achieve power or control (not primarily for
attention or approval). Sometimes it includes excessive competitiveness or domination toward
others: asserting one's power, forcing one's point of view, or controlling the behavior of others
according to one's own desires, without empathy or concern for the needs or feelings of others.
the rest.

11. INSUFFICIENT SELF-CONTROL / DISCIPLINE

Generalized difficulty or refusal to exercise sufficient self-control and frustration tolerance to

achieve personal goals, or to restrict excessive expression of emotions and impulses. In its mildest
form, the patient has an exaggerated emphasis on avoiding discomfort: avoiding pain, conflict,
confrontation, responsibility, or excessive effort, at the expense of personal fulfillment,
commitment, or integrity.

ANOTHER ADDRESS

12. SUPPORT

Excessive surrender of control to others because one feels coerced, usually to avoid anger,
retaliation, or abandonment. The two main forms of subjugation are:

TO. Subjugation of needs: Suppression of one's own preferences, decisions and desires.
b. Subjugation of emotions: suppression of emotional expression, especially anger.

It usually involves the perception that one's own desires, opinions, and feelings are not valid or
important to others. It often presents as overcompliance, combined with hypersensitivity to
feeling trapped. It generally leads to an accumulation of anger, which manifests itself in
maladaptive symptoms (e.g. e.g., passive-aggressive behavior, uncontrolled outbursts,
psychosomatic symptoms, withdrawal of affect, "acting out," substance abuse).

13. SELF-SACRIFICE

Excessive focus on voluntarily satisfying the needs of others in everyday situations, at the expense
of one's own satisfaction. The most common reasons are: to avoid causing pain to others; to
prevent guilt from feeling selfish; or to maintain connection with others perceived as needy. It
often results from an acute sensitivity to the pain of others. It sometimes leads to the feeling that
one's needs are not adequately met and to resentment on the part of those who are served.
(Overlaps with the concept of codependency.)

14. SEARCH FOR APPROVAL / SEARCH FOR RECOGNITION

Excessive emphasis on gaining approval, recognition, or attention from other people, or on fitting
in, at the expense of developing a secure and true sense of self. One's sense of esteem depends
primarily on the reactions of others rather than one's natural inclinations. Sometimes it includes
an excessive emphasis on status, appearance, social acceptance, money, or achievements, as a
means of obtaining approval, admiration, or attention (not primarily for power or control). It often
results in major life decisions that are inauthentic or unsatisfying; or in hypersensitivity to
rejection.

OVER-SURVEILLANCE AND INHIBITION

15. NEGATIVITY/PESIMISM

A lifelong pervasive focus on the negative aspects of life (pain, death, loss, disappointment,
conflict, guilt, resentment, unresolved problems, possible mistakes, betrayal, things that could go
wrong, etc.) while minimizing or neglecting the positive or optimistic aspects Usually includes an
exaggerated expectation, in a wide range of work, financial, or interpersonal situations, that things
will eventually go very wrong, or that aspects of life that seem to be going well will eventually fall
apart. It usually involves an excessive fear of making mistakes that could lead to financial collapse,
loss, humiliation, or being trapped in a bad situation. Because potential negative outcomes are
exaggerated, these patients are often characterized by chronic worry, vigilance, complaining, or
indecision.

16. EMOTIONAL INHIBITION

The excessive inhibition of spontaneous action, feeling, or communication, usually to avoid

disapproval from others, feelings of shame, or loss of control over one's impulses. The most
common areas of inhibition include: (a) inhibition of anger and aggression; (b) inhibition of positive
impulses (e.g. e.g., joy, affection, sexual excitement, play); (c) difficulty expressing vulnerability or
communicating freely about feelings, needs, etc. or (d) excessive emphasis on rationality without
taking emotions into account.

17. RULES WITHOUT RELEVATION / HYPERCIRCULITY

The underlying belief that one must strive to meet very high internalized standards of behavior
and performance, usually to avoid criticism. Typically results in feelings of pressure or difficulty
slowing down; and in hypercritism towards oneself and others. Must involve significant
impairment in: pleasure, relaxation, health, self-esteem, sense of achievement, or satisfying
relationships

Unforgiving standards typically present themselves as: (a) perfectionism, inordinate attention to
detail, or an underestimation of how good one's performance is relative to the norm; (b) rigid
rules and & qout; shoulds & qout; in many areas of life, including unrealistic moral, ethical, cultural
or religious precepts; or (c) concern for time and efficiency, so that more can be achieved.

18. PUNTIVITY

The belief that people should be severely punished for making mistakes. It involves the tendency
to be angry, intolerant, punitive, and impatient with those people (including oneself) who do not
meet one's expectations or standards. It usually includes difficulties in forgiving mistakes in oneself
or others, due to a reluctance to consider extenuating circumstances, allow for human
imperfection, or empathize with feelings.
Schema domains in schema therapy

What are schema domains?

You need wordsAccording to the research, the 18 schemas have been grouped into 5 broad
categories of developmental schemas which are called schema domains. Each of the five domains
represents an important component of a child's basic needs. Schemas interfere with the child's
attempts to satisfy basic needs within each domain.

The five schema domains defined

DISCONNECTION AND REJECTION

The expectation that one's needs for safety, security, stability, caring, empathy, sharing of feelings,
acceptance, and respect will not be met in predictable ways. The typical family background is
detached, cold, rejected, withheld, lonely, explosive, unpredictable, or abusive.

Schemes:

Abandonment/Instability

Mistrust/Abuse

emotional deprivation

Defectivity/Shame

Social isolation/alienation

AWAKEN AUTONOMY AND PERFORMANCE

Expectations about oneself and the environment that interfere with one's perceived ability to
separate, survive, function independently, or perform successfully. The typical family background
is enmeshed, undermining the child's confidence, overprotective, or failing to empower the child
to function competently outside the family.

Schemes:

Dependency/Incompetence

Vulnerability to damage and disease

Tangled / Undeveloped self

Failure

DETERMINED LIMITS
Deficiency in internal boundaries, responsibility toward others, or long-term orientation. It leads
to difficulties in respecting the rights of others, cooperating with others, making commitments, or
setting and meeting realistic personal goals. The typical family background is characterized by
permissiveness, overindulgence, lack of direction, or a sense of superiority, rather than
appropriate confrontation, discipline, and boundaries regarding taking responsibility, mutual
cooperation, and goal setting. In some cases, the child may not have been pushed to tolerate
normal levels of discomfort or given appropriate supervision, direction, or guidance.

Schemes:

Law / Grandiosity

Insufficient self-control/self-discipline

ANOTHER ADDRESS

An excessive focus on the desires, feelings, and responses of others, at the expense of one's own
needs, to gain love and approval, maintain a sense of connection, or avoid retaliation. It usually
involves suppression and lack of awareness of one's own anger and natural inclinations. The
typical family background is based on conditional acceptance: children must suppress important
aspects of themselves to gain love, attention, and approval. In many such families, the parents'
emotional needs and wants, or social acceptance and status, are valued more than each child's
unique needs and feelings.

Schemes:

Subjugation

Self sacrifice

Approval Seeking / Recognition Seeking

OVERSURVEILLANCE AND INHIBITION Emphasis

excessive in suppressing spontaneous feelings, impulses, and choices OR in following rigid,

internalized rules and expectations about performance and ethical behavior, often at the expense
of happiness, self-expression, relaxation, close relationships, or health. The typical family
background is bleak, demanding, and sometimes punitive: performance, duty, perfectionism,
following rules, hiding emotions, and avoiding mistakes predominate over pleasure, joy, and
relaxation. There is usually an undercurrent of pessimism and worry – that things could fall apart if
one is not alert and alert at all times.

Schemes:

Negativity/pessimism

emotional inhibition
Unforgiving standards/hypercriticism

Punishability
Schema Modes in Schema Therapy

What are outline modes?

Mood FacesThe original model used early maladaptive schemas as a unifying framework. More
recent development has added the concept of modes. A mode refers to a part of the self that
expresses itself through the predominant state we are in at a given moment. A schema refers to a
trait, or a more permanent and stable part of the self. One mode consists of our current mood, as
well as behaviors and cognitions. The modes are considered to exist along a continuum of
dissociation. On the one hand, there are modes that flexibly shift and blend to appropriate
degrees and forms of expression as the situation requires.

Why work with outline modes?

Many people identify with most of the first 18 maladaptive schemas. Additionally, there is often
rapid switching between various coping schemas and strategies. Talking to someone about all the
schemas they have and trying to follow them can be overwhelming for both the client and the
therapist. The modes condense processes related to multiple, rapidly changing schemas and
coping strategies into four relatively simple constructs: healthy adult modes, innate child modes,
maladaptive coping modes, and maladaptive parent modes. It then becomes much easier for the
therapist and client to track the rapid shifts between these modes. Mode construction allows the
therapist to ally with the client's healthy adult mode by joining with him/her in labeling and
responding to problematic modes that threaten to take over the client and the therapy.

What are outline modes?

1) HEALTHY ADULT MODE

This mode performs functions appropriate for adults, such as obtaining information, evaluating,
solving problems, working, and parenting. Take responsibility for choices and actions, and make
and keep commitments. In a balanced way, you carry out activities that are likely to be satisfactory
in work, intimate and social relationships, sports, cultural and service-related activities.

2) INNATE CHILD MODES

MODES OF VULNERABLE CHILDREN

Lonely Child: You feel like a lonely child who only values himself to the extent that he can please
his parents. Because the child's most important emotional needs have usually not been met, the
patient usually feels empty, alone, socially unacceptable, undeserving of love, unloved, and
unlovable.

Abandoned and abused child: feels the enormous emotional pain and fear of abandonment, which
has a direct link to the history of abuse. It has the effect of a lost child: sad, scared, vulnerable,
helpless, desperate, needy, victimized, worthless and lost. The patients appear fragile and childish.
They feel helpless and completely alone and are obsessed with finding a father figure to care for
them.

Humiliated/Inferior Child: A subtype of Abandoned and Abused Child mode, in which patients
experience humiliation and inferiority related to childhood experiences within and outside the
family.

Dependent child: feels incapable and overwhelmed by the responsibilities of an adult. He shows
strong regressive tendencies and wants to be cared for. Related to the lack of development of
autonomy and self-sufficiency, often caused by authoritarian education.

ANGRY/UNSOCIALIZED CHILD MODES

Angry child: feels intensely angry, enraged, enraged, frustrated, or hospitalized, because the
vulnerable child's basic emotional (or physical) needs are not met. They express their repressed
anger inappropriately. You may make demands that seem entitled or bratty and that alienate
others.

Angry Child: Experiences intense feelings of anger that result in harm or damage to people or
objects. The anger shown is out of control and is aimed at destroying the aggressor, sometimes
literally. It has the effect of an angry or uncontrollable child, yelling or acting impulsively at a
(suspected) perpetrator.

Impulsive Child: Acts on non-core desires or impulses from one moment to the next in a selfish or
uncontrolled manner to get their way, without taking into account the possible consequences for
themselves or others. You often have difficulty delaying short-term gratification and may appear
"spoiled."

undisciplined child: you cannot force him/herself to finish routine or boring tasks, he gets quickly
frustrated and quits soon.

HAPPY CHILD MODE / CONTENT

You feel at peace because core emotional needs are currently met. You feel loved, content,
connected, satisfied, fulfilled, protected, praised, valuable, nourished, guided, understood,
validated, self-confident, competent, appropriately autonomous or self-sufficient, secure, resilient,
strong, in control, adaptable, optimistic and spontaneous

3) MALADAPTIVE MODES OF COPY

SURRENDER

Obedient Trainer: Acts in a passive, servile, submissive, reassurance-seeking, or self-deprecating

manner to others for fear of conflict or rejection. They passively allow themselves to be mistreated
or do not take steps to satisfy healthy needs. You select people or engage in other behavior that
directly maintains the pattern driven by the self-destructive schema.
Surrendering to Damaged Child Modes: In these modes, people behave as if they were like the
child, with the same beliefs, emotions, and behaviors as when the childhood pattern was
established.

AVOIDANCE

Separate Protector: Psychologically withdraws from the pain of schemas by emotionally

separating. The patient shuts down all emotions, disconnects from others and rejects their help,
and functions almost robotically. It can remain quite functional.

Independent Self-Soother: Turn off your emotions by engaging in activities that somehow calm,
stimulate, or distract you from feeling. These behaviors are usually carried out in an addictive or
compulsive manner, and may include workaholism, gambling, dangerous sports, promiscuous sex,
or drug abuse. Another group of patients compulsively engages in solitary interests that are more
calming than self-stimulating, such as playing computer games, overeating, watching television, or
fantasizing.

Avoidance Protector: Prevents behavioral avoidance activation, stays away from distress-
provoking cue situations.

Angry Protector: Uses a 'wall of anger' to protect himself from others who are perceived as
threatening. Displays of anger serve to keep others at a safe distance to protect themselves from
harm.

OVERCOMPENSATION

Attention and Approval Seeker: Attempts to attract other people's attention and approval through
extravagant, inappropriate, and exaggerated behavior. It usually compensates for underlying
loneliness.

Self-Aggrandising: Behaves in an entitled, competitive, grandiose, abusive, or status-seeking

manner to get what they want. They are almost completely self-absorbed and show little empathy
for the needs or feelings of others. They demonstrate superiority and expect to be treated as
special and do not believe they have to follow the rules that apply to everyone else. They crave
admiration and often boast or behave in a conceited manner to inflate their sense of self.

Overcontroller: Attempts to protect oneself from a real or perceived threat by focusing attention,
ruminating, and exercising extreme control.

Perfectionist Overcontroller: Focuses on perfectionism to achieve control and avoid misfortune

and criticism.

Suspicious Overcontroller: Focuses on vigilance, scanning other people for signs of malevolence,
and controls the behavior of others out of suspicion.
Nagging Overcontroller: Controls the behavior of others by blaming, criticizing, and telling them
how to do things in a dictatorial, nagging manner.

Intimidation and attack: Directly harms other people in a controlled and strategic way emotionally,
physically, sexually, verbally or through antisocial or criminal acts. The motivation may be to
overcompensate to avoid abuse or humiliation. It has sadistic properties.

Scam and Manipulation: Cons, lies, or manipulations in a way designed to achieve a specific goal,
which involves victimizing others or escaping punishment.

Predator: Focuses on eliminating a threat, rival, obstacle or enemy in a cold, ruthless and
calculating manner.

4) MODES OF MALADAPTIVE PARENTS

Punitive Father: The internalized voice of the father, criticizing and punishing the patient. They
become angry with themselves and feel that they deserve punishment for having or showing
normal needs that their parents did not allow them to express. The tone in this mode is harsh,
critical and unforgiving. Songs and symptoms include self-hatred, self-criticism, self-denial, self-
mutilation, suicidal fantasies, and self-destructive behavior.

Demanding Parent – Continually pushes and pressures the child to meet excessively high
standards. You feel that the 'correct' way to be is to be perfect or achieve a very high level, keep
everything in order, strive for high status, be humble, put other needs before your own, or be
efficient or avoid wasting time. The person feels that it is wrong to express feelings or act
spontaneously.
Schema Therapy Coping Styles

What are coping styles in schema therapy?

Blue Green BrainIn the schema therapy model, we conceptualize the development of schemas and
modes as the systems people develop to cope with childhood pain associated with their core
emotional needs are not met. There are three main coping styles and you may be using one or
more of these:

Surrender by adapting to the way you are treated and acting as if you believe, this is how things
should be.

Avoid disconnecting emotionally or physically from people who mistreat you and/or disconnecting
from your own emotions.

Overcompensate by trying to fight the scheme and prove that it is not true. For example, you may
try to do things perfectly so you don't feel defective or try to control others so they don't take
advantage of you.

While each of these three ways of coping helps reduce pain in the short term, they become how
we maintain maladaptive schemas and modes in the long term. Those of us who lean toward
surrender will need help learning to fight abuse and neglect, those of us who lean toward
avoidance will need help gaining the courage to face painful feelings and challenging situations,
and those of us who lean toward We lean towards overcompensation. helps you gain the courage
to become more vulnerable.

Typical coping styles

SURRENDER

Compliance, dependence: depends on others, gives in, seeks affiliation, passive, dependent,
submissive, clinging, avoids conflict, pleases people.

AVOIDANCE

Social withdrawal, excessive autonomy: copes with social isolation, disconnection and withdrawal.
May demonstrate an exaggerated focus on independence and self-sufficiency, rather than
involvement with others. Sometimes it is withdrawn through private activities such as excessive
television watching, reading, recreational computing, or solitary work.

Compulsive stimulation seeking: seeks excitement or distraction through compulsive shopping,

sex, gambling, risk taking, physical activity, novelty, etc.

Addictive self-soothing: Avoid through addictions that involve the body, such as alcohol, drugs,
overeating, excessive masturbation, etc.
Psychological withdrawal: copes with dissociation, numbness, denial, fantasy or other internal
forms of psychological escape

OVERCOMPENSATION

Aggression, hostility: counterattacks by challenging, abusing, blaming, attacking or criticizing

others

Domination, excessive self-assertion: controls others through direct means to achieve goals

Recognition Seeking, Status Seeking: Overcompensate through impression, high performance,

status, and/or attention seeking

Manipulation, Exploitation: Satisfies one's needs through covert manipulation, seduction,

dishonesty, or deception.

Passive-aggressiveness, rebellion: appearing overtly obedient while punishing others or covertly

rebelling through procrastination, pouting, “backstabbing,” tardiness, complaining, rebellion, lack
of performance, etc.

Excessive order, obsessiveness: Maintains strict order, strict self-control, or a high level of
predictability through order and planning, excessive adherence to routine or ritual, or undue
caution. Spends excessive time figuring out the best way to accomplish tasks or avoid negative
outcomes.
Schema Therapy Limited Reparenting

What is limited reparenting?

Words for ParentsThe process of limited reparenting is the core of schema therapy and is one of
its most unique and defining elements. Limited cast refers to the therapist who helps you meet
your early childhood needs and establishes a secure bond with you.

Limited reparenting flows directly from schema therapy's assumption that early maladaptive
schemas and modes emerge when your core needs are not met. The goal of schema therapy is to
meet these needs by helping you find the experiences you missed in early childhood that will serve
as an antidote to the harmful experiences that led to maladaptive schemas and modes. Limited
reparenting, in parallel to healthy parenting, involves establishing a secure attachment through
the therapist, within the confines of a professional relationship, doing what he or she can to meet
these needs. Research spanning a wide range of disciplines supports the notion that secure
attachment is the root of adaptive functioning, well-being, and flourishing.

How does the therapist make a limited distribution?

Just as the parenting process takes many different forms, limited repatriation can involve warmth
and care, firmness, self-disclosure, confrontation, playfulness, and setting limits, among other
things. Schema therapy involves simultaneous tenderness and firmness through what is called
"empathic confrontation." It also varies depending on the phase of treatment. Schema therapy
cannot be classified by a particular stance, such as neutrality, firmness, or caring. Instead, schema
therapy includes a wide range of therapist responses, flexibility, and the organization of these
responses based on your basic needs.

What are the key steps in limited repair?

Limited parenting involves reaching the vulnerable child mode. The therapist will be reassuring
and protective of the vulnerable child. In contrast, the therapist will firm or set limits on avoidance
and compensation modes that block access to vulnerable children's modes or schemas.
Additionally, it often requires the therapist to help you fight against punitive, demanding, or
subjugating parenting patterns or patterns. Limited repair is usually facilitated by the use of guided
imagery, an experimental technique that allows the therapist to establish more direct emotional
contact with the various modes and schemas.
Schema therapy techniques

What are typical schema therapy techniques?

Begin Step 1While schema therapy uses traditional cognitive and behavioral techniques, its
hallmark is the incorporation of more experiential-emotional and interpersonal techniques to
promote higher levels of emotion in sessions. The reason for promoting affect in session is that
deeper change can occur when we can reach the emotional side of the brain. In traditional CBT,
clients with long-standing rigid and maladaptive core beliefs may say, "I understand that what I'm
thinking is not true, but it feels true." In schema therapy, we try to avoid the Independent
Protector to reach the Vulnerable Child to modify schemas.

Cognitive techniques in schema therapy

While any cognitive technique can be used in schema therapy, some typical interventions include
schema diaries, pros and cons of schemas and coping styles, and schema cards.

Schema Diaries

A schema journal is a form completed between sessions that provides a guide for you to organize
your experience when schemas or modes are activated. Schema-driven reactions are classified in
terms of underlying thoughts, feelings, behaviors, schemas and modes, healthy perspectives and
realistic concerns, overreactions and healthy behavior. The daily schedule can be an important
tool to promote healthy adult development.

Flash Cards

Flash cards are written or audio statements that you can use between sessions. They are
developed by the therapist or by you and the therapist, and are statements that would be similar
to those made by a parent to a young child at the developmental age in which they are currently
experiencing their vulnerable child mode. They serve as links to the therapist and, as such, as
transitional objects; especially in the early phases of treatment work on problems rooted in early
attachment. The messages and feelings expressed in the cards are gradually internalized and are
therefore very helpful in developing the Healthy Adult mode. Flash cards are often developed for
each type of challenging situation and treatment phase.

Behavioral techniques in schema therapy

Some behavioral techniques that can be used in schema therapy include assertiveness training to
overcome the underachiever, empathy training for entitlement schemas and modes, and exposure
tasks to overcome avoidance modes, among others. much others.

Experiential-emotional techniques in schema therapy

Experiential and emotional techniques are frequently used in schema therapy to increase affect in
session and create emotional change through imagery, role-playing, and two-chair work.
Images

The right hemisphere of the brain is the dominant hemisphere during early childhood and it is
believed that most early maladaptive schemas are stored there. The right hemisphere has the
strongest links to the limbic part of the brain (the seat of our emotions) and, consequently, is
directly connected to our deepest and most powerful feelings. Images are an important method of
gaining direct access to the “vulnerable child” and the associated “gut level” feelings that make up
the schemas.

Guided imagery is often used early in schema therapy to more clearly and deeply understand
schemas and modes by:

Trigger disturbing childhood memories in the form of images of experiences with mother, father,
and significant others.

Asking you to maintain dialogues with these people.

Ask him what he needs from significant others and understand these needs in terms of the
associated schemas.

Ask you to identify which current situations have the same emotions as early childhood images
and clarify the links between early memories and current triggers of schemas and modes.

Images are also an important element of the change phase. Through “image rewriting,” painful
memories are revised in ways that allow you to meet your needs. In cases where parents or
significant others were unable to meet their needs and remain unable to do so, this involves the
therapist coming into the picture and serving as a transitional source for healthy parenting. This
leads to a secure attachment that develops between you and your therapist, which leads to
growth and integration. Imagery during the change phase may also involve encouraging you to
express anger toward the people who hurt you and helping you assert your rights.

work chair

Chair work involves you moving between two chairs while talking between different parts of
yourself, such as a schema side and the healthy side or a separate protector mode and the healthy
adult mode. Dialogues can also take place between you and imagined significant others for
purposes such as achieving closure or practicing assertiveness. Image work and chair work are
frequently mixed with each other.

Interpersonal Techniques in Schema Therapy

Schema therapy places great emphasis on the therapist-client relationship. Some important
interpersonal strategies include working with schema triggers that occur within the therapy
relationship, limited reparenting, and empathic confrontation.

Reparent limited
The process of limited reparenting is the core of schema therapy and is one of its most unique and
defining elements. Just as the parenting process takes many different forms, limited repatriation
can involve warmth and care, firmness, self-disclosure, confrontation, playfulness, and setting
limits, among other things. Limited parenting may involve reaching into the Vulnerable Child Mode
and being reassuring or firm or setting limits on avoidance and overcompensation modes that
block access to the Vulnerable Child. Additionally, it often requires the therapist to help the client
combat punitive, demanding, or subjugating parenting patterns or patterns. Limited repair is
usually facilitated through the use of guided imagery.

Empathic confrontation

Empathic confrontation means recognizing that the negative behavior is coming from a place of
pain and confusion, and then setting limits. The art of empathic confrontation focuses on
confronting negative behaviors, while making links to the client's early childhood schemas and
coping styles. By doing so, the therapist is more likely to achieve a feeling of genuine compassion
for the client while allowing them to hear how their behavior may be reaching other people in
their life.