Schema Therapy

Schema-focused therapy emphasises identifying and changing maladaptive schemas and the associated ineffective coping strategies. Schemas are psychological constructs that include beliefs that people have about themselves, the world, and other people, and that are the product of how their basic childhood needs were dealt with. Schema change requires both cognitive and experiential work. Cognitive schema-change work employs basic cognitive behavioural techniques to identify and change automatic thoughts, identify cognitive distortions, and conduct empirical tests of individuals’ maladaptive rules about how to survive in an environment created from schemas.