Schema Therapy by ken Walsh

An Overview of Schema Therapy

Schema therapy has been developed specifically to treat personality disorders but has now been successfully used to treat chronic depression, childhood trauma, criminal offenders, eating disorders, couples work, relapse prevention and substance abuse.

Patients with personality disorders or more chronic conditions have failed to respond fully to traditional cognitive behavioural therapy treatments. Beck, Freeman & associates, (1990).

Mainstream services have largely failed these clients, resulting in them feeling more abandoned, flitting from service to service and therapist to therapist. Clients have difficulty maintaining stable relationships, are impulsive, display inappropriate anger, have recurrent suicidal threats gestures or behaviours. They may also suffer from identity disturbance, chronic feelings of emptiness/ boredom and display efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment or rejection. Nhs staff therefore remain largely unskilled in dealing with this client group and may result in further feelings of rejection and abandonment as staff are only to relieved to have the client move on to yet another department or service.

“These clients are treated with minimal compassion and much blame in other therapies”, Young, (2003).

Schema therapy therefore is unusually compassionate and humane, normalizes psychological disorders The approach is sympathetic and respectful with the emphasis very much on the therapy relationship.

Schema therapy is a combination of aspects of different therapies, including cognitive behavioural, attachment, gestalt, object relations, constructivist and psychoanalytical. It expands on cognitive behavioural therapy by placing greater emphasis on explaining childhood and adolescent origins of psychological problems, emotional techniques, the client -therapist relationship and on maladaptive coping styles.

Schema’s

A schema can be described as-

- a broad pervasive theme or pattern

- comprised of memories, emotions, cognitions and bodily sensations

- regarding oneself and one’s relationships with others

- developed during childhood or adolescence

- elaborated throughout one’s lifetime and

- dysfunctional to a significant degree

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BIO:

Ken Walsh is a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist working in the private sector in Belfast, N.Ireland. He has 25 years experience working in the field of mental health.

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