hey everybody today we're gonna talk
about schema therapy Before we jump into
that are you new to my channel welcome
I'm a licensed therapist creating
educational mental health videos and I
release them on Mondays and on Thursday
so make sure you're subscribed and have
your notifications turned on so that you
don't miss out 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
hanging 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
kind of 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-1980s a man
named dr. Jeffery young was working with
patients at the center for cognitive
therapy at the University of
Pennsylvania and while he was seen 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 like I kind of
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 ok now let's talk a
little bit about some of the key
components of schema therapy now a
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 may
be 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 continue 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 - they're comprised of memories
emotions cognitions and bodily
sensations and three they involve the
way we see ourselves or our relationship
with others for they have developed
during childhood or adolescence and were
five deepened and extended throughout
our lifetime and sixth 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 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 the maladaptive
coping styles is only 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 into this maladaptive Rome 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
into 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 overcompensation
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 kind
of unhealthy coping skill and the mode
that we go into really depends on our
coping skills and those early unhealthy
schemas that we kind of 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 were operating
out of I know that sounds very
therapists II but I hope you kind of
understand it's like what emotional
needs weren't met then what do we do to
deal with that 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
want to 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 kind
of Q&A or may use techniques to help us
identify schemas that are impacting our
lives a schema therapy is such a multi
theory approach remember we're kind of
picking and choosing from different
therapies will likely experience a
number of different types of therapy
styles our therapists 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 having a
hard time with and pretend that they're
in that chair or you can roleplay 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 kind of
crazy and I know a lot of you don't like
that but it can help us uncover some may
the 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 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 into 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 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 form
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
want to 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 lot of different
kinds of therapies out there and it can
be hard to know which ones 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