Human: Schema Therapy

The only journey is the one within - Rilke

Schema Therapy (Jeffrey Young, 1990) is an evidence-based approach to healing from past traumas, dismantling unhealthy and conditioned patterns of thinking, feeling, and coping, and creating a more compassionate and meaningful relationship to self and life. It combines elements of cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT), attachment theory, psychoanalytic/psychodynamic therapy, and gestalt therapy.

A Schema is an unconscious ‘blueprint’ of ingrained beliefs, feelings, and images/memories about self, others, and the world that is stable and enduring over time, and which gets reinforced through the course of an individual’s life experiences. You could also understand Schemas as a kind of ‘core wound’ of the psyche.

There are many Schemas (e.g., Abandonment, Emotional Deprivation, Failure, Unrelenting Standards), and they often broadly fall into themes of feeling either unlovable, unsafe, or incompetent.

In Schema Therapy, we embark on a journey of healing the Wounded Child, as well as building up the Healthy Self. For many clients, the idea of a Healthy Self is quite foreign. For me, this is the privilege and the importance of this work; to meet someone’s pain, support them to heal, and move forward - gradually and imperfectly - into a life that is more whole, and more true to who-they-are.

I believe that, as for all organisms in nature, human beings have an innate capacity and drive to evolve. Yet change can be scary, and it also takes work!

While it is ultimately the client who heals and makes positive change in their life, stepping into Schema Therapy with me means they are not alone in this endeavour; they have a guide, a facilitator, a caring support, and a clear ‘map of the territory’.

You can read more about Schema Therapy here.