About this site.This website is hosted by Ruth Holt to provide information about training and supervision in Schema Therapy and provide a list of Schema Couples Therapists in Australia and Schema Therapists in Canberra and the ACT region.
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Ruth is proud to be part of the team bringing Schema Therapy to Children and Adolescents!
This book is now available! |
Training workshopsRegister for workshops designed to equip you in the theory and practice of Schema Therapy.
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Supervision groupsSign up for a supervision group to receive tailored input and group case discussion.
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Schema Couples TherapySchema Couples Therapy Australia is providing certification training face to face and online in 2023.
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What is Schema Therapy?
Schema Therapy was developed by Jeffrey Young in the 1990s to provide treatment options for long-term issues and “treatment resistant” anxiety and depression. Over the last decade Schema Therapy has been successfully applied to a number of presentations, and has been used as an adjunct to other therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
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Schema Therapy suggests that ongoing distress is a result of the activation of schemas, which have often been developed in a person’s early years. Schemas are constructs; made-up of ways of thinking, feeling, experiencing, and memories. When these schemas are activated they trigger a theme that is distressing and self-reinforcing. Schemas can be related to abandonment, isolation, failure, defectiveness (there are 18 Schemas in total).
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Example: Sally's Abandonment Schema |
Example: Tom’s Defectiveness Schema |
Sally’s Abandonment Schema has been triggered by her partner coming home late on a regular basis. She becomes desperate that her partner is going to leave, gets clingy, angry and sometimes shuts down to stop feeling the distress of the Schema. However over time her partner becomes tired of these reactions that are “too big” and actually does leave, reinforcing the Schema’s story that “people always leave me”.
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Tom has a Defectiveness Schema that gets activated every time his boss asks to see his work. He has many memories of being told he wasn’t good enough growing up, so when those memories, thoughts and feelings get triggered he responds with “too much” anger. He becomes angry and has yelled at his boss for “micro-managing”. He is now being performance managed, which reinforces his Defectiveness Schema.
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Schema Therapy uses a variety of techniques to help clients understand the origin of those Schemas and undo the power of that triggering, so people are able to respond from a more healthy perspective, being able to choose a response that is more in line with their values and goals.
Schema Mode Therapy is part of Schema Therapy, focusing on the ways schemas express themselves in the moment. When schemas get activated a person may become quite distressed, may get very angry, may shut down, may use drugs or alcohol, loose themselves on the internet, gamble or eating to numb pain, or become a ‘peacemaker’ to feel okay again. These ways of reacting are all Schema Modes. For example, when Sally's Abandonment schema is triggered, in order to shut down that feeling she might spend a lot of time gaming, lost in a Detached Self Soother mode, then she might remember how alone she feels so she might flip into Vulnerable Child mode (feeling very alone, fearful and distressed). A general goal of Schema Therapy is to decrease the intensity, frequency, and volatility of unhelpful modes and underlying schemas, and thereby strengthen a healthy approach to life.
Further information about Schema Therapy is available here:
http://www.davidbricker.com/clientsguideSchemaTherapy.pdf
A clip of George Lockwood (a senior Schema Therapist) talking about what Schema Therapy is, how core needs fit in and evidence for treatment for people with Borderline Personality Disorder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO5dF98VGZI
Schema Mode Therapy is part of Schema Therapy, focusing on the ways schemas express themselves in the moment. When schemas get activated a person may become quite distressed, may get very angry, may shut down, may use drugs or alcohol, loose themselves on the internet, gamble or eating to numb pain, or become a ‘peacemaker’ to feel okay again. These ways of reacting are all Schema Modes. For example, when Sally's Abandonment schema is triggered, in order to shut down that feeling she might spend a lot of time gaming, lost in a Detached Self Soother mode, then she might remember how alone she feels so she might flip into Vulnerable Child mode (feeling very alone, fearful and distressed). A general goal of Schema Therapy is to decrease the intensity, frequency, and volatility of unhelpful modes and underlying schemas, and thereby strengthen a healthy approach to life.
Further information about Schema Therapy is available here:
http://www.davidbricker.com/clientsguideSchemaTherapy.pdf
A clip of George Lockwood (a senior Schema Therapist) talking about what Schema Therapy is, how core needs fit in and evidence for treatment for people with Borderline Personality Disorder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO5dF98VGZI