- Hey everybody.
Today we're gonna talk about schema therapy.
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But now, let's get into today's topic, schema therapy.
What is it, and why would a therapist
recommend it for you?
Now, schema therapy is a therapy style
that was developed to tackle pervasive patterns
in our lives.
Pervasive just means, it's like running through everything,
it's just always hangin' out there,
and what schema therapy does is it helps us identify
and uncover schemas or themes that we formed
in response to early experiences
of unmet emotional needs, okay?
I know that's a lot, but just hang with me.
What that really means in short
is that when hurtful or bad things happen to us,
we try, you know, to make sense of it
by believing that it's either like our fault,
we did something, or we create
an unhealthy or negative story about it
to kinda tell ourselves why that thing happened.
And this type of therapy seeks to help us learn
how to operate in a healthy mode or state of being,
as we learn to get our core emotional needs met
in everyday life.
Now, before we go any further
into why someone could benefit from schema therapy,
let's talk a little bit about the origin of it.
Now, schema therapy is a type of therapy
that was developed in the mid 1980's.
A man named Dr. Jeffrey Young was working with patients
at the Center for Cognitive Therapy
at the University of Pennsylvania,
and while he was seeing a lot of success
through cognitive therapy, he also noticed
that with patients who seemed to have
more pervasive patterns of dysfunction
or personality disorders, he really wasn't seeing
much lasting change, and that's why
he began to develop schema therapy.
He wanted to take the strengths
from multiple therapeutic techniques,
you know, like I kinda do in my practice.
He wanted to pick and choose from the ones that existed
and combine them into one integrated approach,
and that's how schema therapy was born.
Schema therapy helps to navigate patterns
that developed out of our childhood
that now permeate our lives, and it does this
by borrowing from multiple theories,
just like I was talking about.
For example, psychodynamic theory
explores childhood relationship experiences
with the mindset that insight into the past
can in and of itself, help us navigate the present.
Cognitive therapy takes a more present day approach,
seeking to identify thought patterns
taking place in specific situations,
and focusing on how we can shift our narrative.
Schema therapy integrates both approaches
by exploring elements, as well as borrowing
from some attachment theory, object relations theory,
and emotion-focused therapies and more.
Okay, now let's talk a little bit about
some of the key components of schema therapy.
Now schema therapy has four key conceptions.
Number one, emotional needs,
number two, early maladaptive schemas,
number three, maladaptive coping styles,
and four, schema modes.
Now I know that sounds like a lot,
but don't worry, we'll break it down.
Okay, so let's get into each of these concepts a little more
so that you can just better understand them,
and the first, the core emotional needs.
Schema therapy proposes that you and I
have some basic emotional needs when we're children.
We've kind of talked about this
when it comes to, you know, childhood emotional neglect,
and some, maybe abuse that we sustained as children.
We all have emotional needs, and when these are not met,
we develop early maladaptive schemas.
That really means a faulty story or belief about ourselves,
and these are damaging themes or patterns
that we developed in our childhood,
and then continued to add to throughout our lives.
For example, one of these might be,
I'm not worth loving, or everyone always leaves me.
Now schema therapy has categorized our schemas
into 18 themes, that can result
from a perceived lack of core emotional needs being met.
I'm not gonna go through all 18.
You can look it up if you want more.
Of course, our brains have lots of schemas
they form in our childhood, and even
into adulthood, but early maladaptive schemas
have a few things in common, and this
is our second one if you don't remember.
The second component of schema therapy
is early maladaptive schemas.
Okay, so they have a lot of things in common,
and the first is that
they have broad pervasive themes or patterns.
Two, they're comprised of memories, emotions,
cognitions and bodily sensations,
and three, they involve the way we see ourselves
or our relationship with others.
Four, they have developed during childhood or adolescence,
and were five, deepened and extended
throughout our lifetime, and six,
and finally, they create a significant degree
of dysfunction in our lives.
Pretty much what we're saying is these maladaptive schemas
we've created started in our childhood,
they're not helpful, they actually hinder us,
and they kind of hang out and permeate our entire life.
Now from these schemas, we then develop
what they call coping mechanisms,
which you know a lot about.
I am always talking about coping skills,
and that's really what these are.
For a child in a rough situation growing up,
these coping strategies make sense.
They were our way to, you know, try to protect ourselves,
and they can help us get through really tough things.
You know how I've mentioned that like,
self- injurious behavior or even dissociation
can help us get through a really tough time,
but what makes them maladaptive coping styles
is when we hang on to those coping mechanisms
past the point that they're helpful.
I've talked about this before,
like our self-injury is no longer serving us,
and so that's when they kind of move in
to this maladaptive realm.
Now these are different for every individual, obviously,
which can explain why we are different from our siblings,
even though we could grow up in the exact same environment.
Coping mechanisms can be shaped by our temperament,
or just from watching and or imitating someone around us.
Coping mechanisms can be a variety of different things,
but they tend to fall in to one of three categories,
and I found this really fascinating.
The first category is surrender,
which means we're repeating our schemas over and over again.
For example, if our schema makes us feel weak,
we might have a coping strategy
of over-dependence on others, which really lines up
with that schema or that narrative
that we are weak or unable.
The second category is avoidance.
Now these strategies are the ones
that help us avoid or escape our schemas.
For example, you know, addictions,
or seeking some kind of stimulation
that can make us completely avoid
all the stuff that we maybe think or feel about ourselves,
and the third category of coping mechanisms
is over-compensation.
Now these strategies are the ones
that lead us to do the opposite of our schema.
So if our schema makes us feel out of control,
we might end up coping with obsessive disorder
or extreme planning, or maybe even eating disorder behavior.
Okay, we talked about all three
of the main concepts in schema therapy,
and I know that was a lot, remember
they were core emotional needs,
early maladaptive schemas, and maladaptive coping styles,
and the last concept that's important in schema therapy
is what's known as schema modes.
Now, this really refers to the modes
or states that our mind goes into
when we're triggered, okay?
Modes are a combination of our schemas
and our coping mechanisms, and it's out of that
that flow these patterns
that we see playing out in our lives.
You know, when you kind of find yourself
like in the same type of relationship
or having the same kind of relationship issues.
A mode is not simply a narrative we have
or a coping behavior, or a feeling that's triggered.
It's really when all those things come together
so consistently and repeatedly
that our brain kind of has a mode it now goes into
when we're triggered.
Does that make sense?
It's kind of like our brain gets so used
to thinking and doing the same thing
every single time it's triggered
that it either acts responsibly
to get us out of the situation,
or it possibly dissociates or, you know,
has us engaging in some kinda unhealthy coping skill,
and the mode that we go into really depends
on our coping skills, and those early,
unhealthy schemas that we kinda talked about
that we developed as a child.
Does that make sense?
When it comes to these modes,
schema therapy identifies and addresses
10 different kinds of them, and it's designed
to tackle those 10, and if any of this
doesn't make sense, or you want
more clarification, just let me know
in those comments down below, and I'm happy
to follow up, either in a comment or in another video.
So we've talked about the key concepts,
but what actually happens when we walk into the office
of a therapist who specializes in schema therapy?
The primary goals of schema therapy
are to first unpack and identify
those four concepts in our lives.
What experiences did we have of unmet needs?
What schemas have we developed,
and what coping mechanisms go along with these
to make up the modes that we're operating out of?
I know that sounds very therapisty,
but I hope you kinda understand.
It's like, what emotional needs weren't met,
then what do we do to deal with the feeling,
or that unmet need, and then how
do we act as a result?
And moving on to the second thing
a schema therapist will do, is that
they'll wanna know how we get our needs met,
and how we can access a healthy mode
that operates out of adaptive schemas.
So they're gonna help you create these adaptive schemas
and healthier coping mechanisms,
so it can help us in our relationships and our lives.
Like, if we could rise to the occasion when we're triggered,
and not let that old way of thinking
cause us to relapse or dissociate,
they're gonna help build up those coping skills,
also challenge some of those thoughts
or beliefs you have about yourself in your past
so that we can feel more confident and empowered
to make healthy decisions.
Often schema therapy involves a period of assessment.
Therapists may ask us to take some kinda Q and A,
or may use techniques to help us identify schemas
that are impacting our lives.
As schema therapy is such a multi-theory approach,
remember, we're kinda picking and choosing
from different therapies, we'll likely experience
a number of different types of therapy styles.
Our therapist may utilize cognitive techniques
or emotion-focused techniques,
which can involve more techniques like chair work.
If you ever done like Empty Chair Technique
where you talk to someone
that you're havin' a hard time with
and pretend that they're in that chair,
or you could role play to explore different schemas,
like, almost like taking that eating disorder voice out
and talking to it, like, why are you doing that,
and I know it sounds kinda crazy,
and I know a lot of you don't like that,
but it can help us uncover
some, maybe other schemas or other issues
or coping skills that we may be dealing with.
Now the therapy relationship may also be utilized
in schema therapy by exploring any modes,
remember, those ways we act out,
that are triggered in sessions,
which, really is just a fancy way of saying
that we'll talk through and work through
any transference that might come up.
And behavioral techniques can also be used,
helping us press in to new coping strategies
and try out new behaviors to help us
feel more confident and able to act out
in a healthier mode, instead of,
you know, going back to that old unhealthy one
that's really been holding us back.
Okay, now let's talk a little bit
about who can benefit from schema therapy,
and the truth is, the key concepts
of schema therapy could probably help most of us.
I know when I was researching this, I thought that,
that it could really, really help me,
and many of us have emotional needs
that we really felt were unmet as children
or adolescents, and we all likely formed schemas
or unhealthy coping skills out of that,
and all of that can lead us to having behaviors
or patterns in our lives that we don't like
and we maybe wanna change.
So how do we know if this therapy
is the best fit for us?
How do we know when we should be pursuing schema therapy
or something more commonly available, like CBT?
Well, schema therapy was developed
specifically to provide options
and help for patients who have patterns in their life
that are so pervasive and deeply entrenched within them
that typical forms of therapy
can leave them feeling discouraged
at their inability to go deeper
than tackling just the symptoms they're feeling.
It's commonly thought to be one of the more helpful tools
for those of us who are struggling
with chronic psychological disorders
like borderline personality disorder or narcissism,
and it's also been known to work well
with those who find they're struggling
with lifelong patterns that are really hindering
their quality of life, like eating disorders or addiction.
There are a lotta different kinds
of therapies out there, and it can be hard to know
which one's best for you, but I hope
this just gives you a little bit more information
about schema therapy, and if you're not sure,
always chat with your therapist,
and ask for their take on this.
You know, what type of therapy
might be the most helpful for you.
And if you're watching this and you've tried schema therapy,
or have had any thoughts on it,
please share in the comments down below,
and I will see you next time.
Bye.