Schema Therapy was created by Young who initially used cognitive-behavioral therapy, but upon realizing that it had limitations, he decided to go further and began to learn about other psychological theories and techniques. With all this, he manages to create his own therapeutic model “Schema-Focused Therapy”.
The objective of this therapy focuses on working on life traps, which cause different types of psychological disorders that are mostly chronic.
Lifetraps or schemas are repetitive and maladaptive patterns (thoughts, feelings and behaviors). They usually arise in the early stages. These are modified through schema therapy; to achieve this purpose, the therapist uses the techniques already mentioned.
Schema Therapy is an innovative and integrative psychotherapy model that combines various psychological theories mainly from cognitive-behavioral, attachment and Gestalt theories. This therapy focuses on identifying and changing patterns of dysfunctional thinking and behavior, which are called schemas, which are activated throughout the patient’s life, causing discomfort and suffering.
What are schemes called?
They are those repetitive patterns (thoughts, feelings and behaviors) that develop in the early stages of life. In simpler terms, schemas determine how we think, relate, and behave with others, and trigger emotions such as anger, anxiety, depression among others.
What is the purpose of Schema Therapy?
This model is intended to help patients identify and modify maladaptive or dysfunctional patterns of thinking and behavior that have developed in the early stages. The usefulness of this therapy specifically is for chronic psychological disorders since it integrates different psychological currents in this way it can offer a more complete approach to psychotherapy unlike a conventional model. In summary, This therapy model aims to promote self-awareness and confidence in the subject helping to face emotional and relational problems in a different, rational, adaptive and functional way.
Techniques for the schema psychotherapy process include:
What are its benefits?
On the other hand, patients who receive this therapy will be able to rewrite and reinterpret their traumas, which will allow them to free themselves from the traumatic events that generate pain, suffering and unhappiness.
What are its benefits for the psychotherapist?
Well, they will have innovative and integrative techniques (cognitive, emotional and behavioral), which will allow them to carry out more comprehensive approaches from the evaluation and psychotherapy phase.
By acquiring the knowledge and training of these techniques they will be able to connect the experiences of the past that connect with the present and the future of the person (patient). This allows them to repair aspects of the past (traumas, deficiencies…) and commit to maintaining psychological well-being. And another important aspect is that it is useful for use in chronic and severe disorders such as BPD, chronic depression and anxiety, addictions and couples therapy. On the other hand, it also allows them to carry out preventive intervention approaches in children and adolescent groups.
For all the aforementioned, Professionals who wish to intervene in preventive treatments and interventions must be trained and trained with professionals with training and experience in said therapy. For this reason, as a representative of the ITE Institute of Schema Therapy, I invite you to my personalized individual or group clinical training in schema therapy and schema therapy for couples, which last one year each.
On the other hand, those who have already undergone clinical training in schema therapy can take specialization courses in: schema therapy for the treatment of borderline disorder, schema therapy for the treatment of emotional dependence, and schema therapy for childhood and adolescent disorders. . These trainings and courses are especially provided by me since since 2018 I have had the certification of my training and clinical practice in different private entities and currently independently.
I conclude by mentioning that schema therapy is an integrative therapy model, but not eclectic and innovative, and despite its short time as another model of therapy is showing effectiveness in many chronic disorders. And there are even comparative studies with models such as CBT, DBT… in which their effectiveness is recognized and evidenced.
Schema therapy is a model that derives from CBT and, together with other theories, was created by Young and its purpose is to provide the therapist with cognitive, experiential and behavioral techniques so that they can use them and provide patients with psychological strategies that empower them. to the healthy adult for functional coping with maladaptive ways in this way the healthy adult will be the one who will make the decisions and face the problems in a functional way.
