Individual treatment Flashcards
What is schema therapy?
- An integrative therapy approach
- Used to treat clients with PDs, characterological issues, some chronic Axis I diagnoses, and various others
- integrates aspects of cognitive therapy, behavioral therapy, object relations, Gestalt therapy, constructivism, attachment models, and psychoanalysis
- Targets the chronic and characterological aspects of a disorder rather than the acute psychiatric symptoms
Who created schema therapy?
Jeffrey Young
When is schema therapy indicated?
- When the presenting problem is chronic and long term
- When a person with an Axis I disorder relapses chronically or is non-reponsive to therapy
- When the presenting problem is vague yet pervasive
- When the client is highly avoidant, shows rigid patterns of thought and behavior, or is unusually needy, demanding, or feels entitled
Differentiation of schema therapy from CBT?
Schema therapy puts greater emphasis on the developmental origins of psychological problems on lifelong patterns of psychosocial functioning, and on entrenched core themes of maladaptive cognition and behavior
What are the three main constructs in schema therapy?
Schemas - core psychological themes
Coping styles - characteristic behavioral responses to schemas
Modes - the schemas and coping styles operating at a given moment
According to schema therapy what causes emotional difficulties?
Unmet core needs in childhood and adolescent development –> maladaptive schemas and coping styles
Definition of schemas:
- Internal phenomena that influence external behavior through the development of coping styles.
- Incorporate how one conceptualizes
oneself and one’s relationships with others. - They comprise memories, emotions, cognitions, and bodily sensations
- They develop during childhood and adolescence and are elaborated throughout one’s lifetime
- Generally accepted as a priori truths and are
outside of awareness,
Definition of early maladaptive schemas (EMSs)
Broad, self-defeating, pervasive patterns that begin in childhood and repeat throughout a person’s life
They comprise memories, emotions, cognitions, and bodily sensations
Types of schemas:
- positive
- negative
- earlier
- later
How do early schemas develop?
- Usually in the nuclear family
- From an interaction of the child’s innate temperament and specific unmet, childhood needs
Five core emotional needs in childhood
- secure attachments to others (safety, stability, nurturance, and acceptance)
- autonomy, competence, and sense of identity
- freedom to express valid needs and emotions
- spontaneity and play
- realistic limits and self-control
4 types of early life experiences that may foster the development of EMSs
- toxic frustration of needs
- traumatization
- the child is provided with too much of a good thing
- selective internalization or identification
Toxic frustrations of needs and schemas
- Occurs when the child experiences deficits in the early environment (in stability, understanding, or love)
- Acquired schemas: Emotional deprivation, Abandonment
Traumatization and schemas:
- Occurs when the child is harmed, criticized, controlled, or victimized
- Developed schemas: Mistrust/Abuse, Defectiveness or Subjugation
“Too much of a good thing” and schemas
- The child is given too much of something that in moderation would be healthy
- Schemas: Dependence and Entitlement
“Selective internalization or identification” with significant others and schemas:
- Occurs when the child selectively identifies with, and internalizes, the parent’s thoughts, feelings, experiences, and schemas
- Schema: vulnerability
“Schema chemistry”
People are drawn to people who trigger their schemas; the schema is known and feels right, even tho it causes suffering
“Schema perpetuation”
All that an individual does internally or behaviorally to maintain a schema, including thoughts, feelings, actions, and interactions
Schema healing
- The goal of schema therapy
- The intensity and influence of a schema are diminished and clients learn to replace maladaptive coping styles with more adaptive patterns of behavior