Schema Therapy

Schema therapy is an integrative therapeutic approach which draws on principles from cognitive behavioural therapy, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and attachment theory. Whilst it was originally developed by Jeffrey Young and his colleagues to treat people with more complex difficulties who did not seem to benefit from CBT, there is good evidence that schema therapy is a very effective approach to the treatment of a wide range of presenting problems - not just the most complex ones. The model assumes that all humans share a set of core, universal emotional needs, and suggests that if these needs are not consistently met, we have to develop ways to make sense of ourselves and the world to help us cope with the impact of this experience. These ways of making sense are called 'schemas'. Our schemas are helpful and adaptive in childhood when they represent the best possible fit between us and our environment at the time, and they help us to cope with the pain of having unmet needs. But they can cause significant problems for us in adulthood because they tend to be very persistent and rigid, meaning that we can feel as though we are stuck in unhelpful patterns. In schema therapy, we explore your early attachment experiences to map out how you have learned to cope with unmet emotional needs in order to better understand how these earlier experiences might be showing up now in your adult life, and we work together to help you update these schemas so that they reflect your current circumstances, values and priorities.