Schema therapy sits at the heart of what we do at the Good Mood Clinic. It’s a compassionate, practical and contemporary approach to improving mental health that first began the 1990s. Each year we see hugely positive results for our clients and we’re confident it can work for you too. But what exactly is it?
What is a ‘Schema’?
A schema is a trait or aspect of our personality that develops in childhood through our interactions with caregivers and other early life experiences. An essential building block of human psychology, schemas are typically shaped by negative events like trauma, neglect or emotional abuse, whether intentional or otherwise. Schemas tend to develop over time when our core emotional childhood needs are not met in some way. Of course while they develop in childhood, the effects are often seen most acutely in adulthood. When triggered by certain situations, or people, they can lead us to respond in non-helpful ways. These are referred to as ‘coping styles’ and can be grouped into three broad categories: (1) Surrender; (2) Avoidance; and (3) Over-compensation.
While every schema has identifiable coping styles, none are helpful in the long term because they only serve to fuel the schema and keep it alive.
How does Schema therapy work?
Everyone has schemas. But we all differ in the ways we respond to them. Sometimes schemas can lead to mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. Today there are 18 identified maladaptive schemas and a key part of how we’ll help is to explore which of these might be relevant to you. Like many things relating to good health, identifying the root cause can be a major step towards finding an effective solution. Accordingly, your therapist will work closely with you to help identify your default coping behaviours and reveal the underlying factors that fuel them.
One of the very best ways to improve your mental health is altering how you respond to schemas.
What are your personality ‘modes’?
As well as identifying schemas, we’ll explore your operational personas. These are also known as ‘modes’. Some people flip in and out of different modes. Others live in the same default mode most of the time. There are broadly four types of modes: (1) child modes, (2) dysfunctional parent or critic modes, (3) maladaptive coping modes and (4) the healthy adult mode. The non-helpful ‘coping’ modes, fall into three categories: (1) avoidant modes, (2) over-compensatory modes, and (3) a general surrendering mode, the ‘compliant surrender’.
Just like schemas, if non-helpful modes are strong and go unchecked for a long time they can play a role in the cause of emotional and psychological health problems like depression. Schema therapy aims to strengthen and promote the ‘healthy adult’ mode over time.
Understanding your modes can help you better understand why you behave the way you do in different situations.
How do we do it?
Schema therapy is an integrative therapy. This means we’ll help you use a combination of different methods to create some really positive mental changes. These can include things like:
(1) Cognitive interventions – like cognitive therapy
(2) Behavioural pattern breaking – this includes resisting the urge to respond in the same old ways and trying new ways of responding
(3) Experiential interventions – such as guided imagery techniques
(4) ‘Here & now’ relational methods – these focus on the therapeutic relationship itself.
Your therapist will take great care to guide you through these steps, helping you understand and then target your areas of vulnerability. They’ll teach you how to identify your unhelpful coping modes, while also setting limits on the ways you respond to them and exploring strategies to fight the destructive messages from your inner critic or ‘parent modes’. The ultimate goal is to boost your ability to do this for yourself by strengthening your healthy adult mode. While often weak at the beginning, you’ll feel this improve throughout your therapy journey, improving your self-awareness, confidence and mood along the way.
Schema therapy is not passive. It’s very practical and uses emotion-focused interventions to help you create real and lasting change.
Who can benefit from Schema therapy?
Almost everyone. For example, have you ever wondered why and how your emotional buttons get pushed? Or know people who always seem to trigger a powerful emotional response in you? It’s all linked to understanding your schemas, what they are, where they came from, and what or who triggers them.
By better understanding your schemas, you can greatly reduce your vulnerability to future issues such as depression, clinical anxiety and other psychological disorders. In particular, schema therapy is very useful for anyone with recurrent or long-standing depression, reoccurring negative events or persistent low self-esteem. It’s also helpful for problematic romantic or family relationships and for people whose own personality style tends to interfere with their well-being, relationships and general functioning.
Schema therapy can benefit almost everyone, because we all have some degree of difficulty in our lives which is linked to schemas.
How long does it take?
Schema therapy is usually a medium to long-term therapy. Everyone’s journey is different, of course. But as a rough guide, it may require six months or more of regular or semi-regular sessions. Some clients see real changes much sooner however, simply from understanding their own schemas and recognising what they feel like when triggered. It all depends on your individual situation.