There are different psychotherapy approaches to support clients with various issues. Schema Therapy remains my preferred treatment method with the vast majority of the clients. It has consistently proven to be a powerful way to uncover the root causes of the clients' emotional experiences and provide healing for them.
Clients usually start seeking for Schema Therapy when other forms of therapy methods that helps with emotion regulation such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) have failed.
HOW DOES SCHEMA THERAPY WORK?
UNDERSTANDING SCHEMAS
Schemas are deep-rooted and long-standing patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving that develop early in life when you are a child because our emotional needs are not met, perhaps due to emotional neglect and/ or abuse. Some examples of unhelpful schemas could be “nobody loves me”, “I’m a mess” and “something bad is going to happen”. When these needs are not met, together with certain traumatic and emotional life challenges, leads to the development of schemas. Over time, these schemas become a blueprint of which you view yourself and the world around you, which will influence your relationships and impact your emotional wellbeing.
IDENTIFYING & EXPLORING SCHEMAS
Schema Therapy involves a carefully thought-out process of identifying, exploring and understanding these deeply-rooted schemas and how it causes harm in an individual's daily life. Through self-reflection, questionnaires and therapeutic discussions, clients will develop better insight and self awareness into the origin of their core beliefs and why they behave the way they do.
EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCING
Unlike more traditional talk therapy approaches, Schema Therapy places emphasis on emotional experiencing to allow you to be fully exposed to and express our emotions that are related to the identified schemas and how they came to be. By acknowledging and processing these emotions, we build the way for more felt, lasting change.
COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING
Schema Therapy also involves challenging and reframing negative thoughts and actively replacing them with more healthy alternatives. This is achieved through therapeutic discussions, imagery rescripting and chairwork.
BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE
Your Schema Therapist will also guide you to make healthier choices by changing the unhealthy life patterns. Through learning to improve your communication skills and practicing adaptive behaviours with role-play and other behavioural exercises in therapy, you will create sustainable change in your daily life and close relationships.
COPING MODES
Schema coping modes affect the way you feel and cope at any one moment and they are constantly evolving. An individual can have inactive schema modes and active schema modes at the same time. One can also switch between helpful and unhelpful schema modes during the day.
Schema modes are mainly categorised into 4 categories:
Child modes, such as the vulnerable, angry, impulsive or happy child mode
Dysfunctional Coping Modes, where one may tend to become passive/ helpless, detach oneself emotionally or end up hurting others around them.
Dysfunctional Parent Modes includes the punitive or demanding parent
Healthy adult mode represents a healthy and functional self
HOW CAN SCHEMA THERAPY HELP YOU?
BREAKING THE CYCLE
It will help you to break the cycle of self-defeating and reactive thoughts, feelings and behaviours such that you can choose to respond to life challenges in a more adaptive way. Eventually, it will help you foster a renewed sense of self, growth and resilience!
REPAIRING RELATIONSHIPS
Frequently, schemas manifest in the way that we relate to one another. When we start to recognise and modify our unhealthy interpersonal patterns, it will lead us to enjoy more fulfilling and healthy relationships with our partners, children and loved ones.
LONG-TERM TRANSFORMATION
Schema Therapy addresses the deep-seated root causes of emotional struggles and lets you be equipped with tools to navigate life from a more resilient and authentic self. It does not just treat the "symptoms" but aid in long-lasting healing and positive change.
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