31 min

Schema Therapy Let's Talk About CBT

    • Health & Fitness

How do we develop patterns of thinking and behaving from our earlier experiences?
What is Schema Focussed Therapy and how does it fit in the wider family of CBTs?
Dr Gill Heath and Mary speak to Dr Lucy Maddox. 
Show Notes and Transcript: 
If you’re interested in finding out more...
Websites
BABCP has a Schema Therapy Special Interest Group which you can find out about here: https://www.babcp.com/Membership/SIG/Schema-Therapy.aspx
The Schema Therapy Society has more information about the therapy and therapists, and some more resources: https://schematherapysociety.org
Books
The book we talk about in the episode is the first one:
Young, J. E., & Klosko, J. S. (1994). Reinventing Your Life: The Breakthough Program to End Negative Behavior... and Feel Great Again. Penguin.
Young, J. E., Klosko, J. S., & Weishaar, M. E. (2003). Schema therapy: A practitioner's guide. Guilford Press.
Rafaeli, E., Bernstein, D. P., & Young, J. (2010). Schema therapy: Distinctive features. Routledge.
Transcript
Lucy: This is Let's Talk About CBT, and I'm Dr Lucy Maddox. This series of podcasts, brought to you by the BABCP, explores cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, what it is, what it's not, and how it can be useful.  

We've been thinking about the wider family of CBTs, and today we're going to be thinking about schema-focused therapy.  

For this episode, like the others in the series, I spoke to somebody who has experienced schema therapy for themselves, as well as someone who is used to delivering schema therapy. I went to London to speak with Mary and Dr Gill Heath.  

Mary has been having schema therapy for a while, and she took the time to explain to me what it has been like for her and how she sees it. 

Mary: My understanding of schema therapy is it's like separating out the different ways that you think about things and so like looking at the different parts of yourself and the different ways of approaching things. So, like the part that is just furiously angry at things, or the part that’s just really, really, really sad and doesn't really understand why.  

It's separating those out and going, “Okay, when I'm feeling that, what is that?” so like, “What do I want when I'm feeling that? What are those? What's underneath those feelings? What am I trying to get to?” 

Lucy: I also spoke to Mary's therapist, Gill Heath, clinical psychologist and co-director of Schema Therapy Associates. She told me some of the things that she likes about using this approach. 

Gill: It's really flexible. In my experience, it seems to work with quite a broad range of issues because you can really understand the person's individual patterns. The techniques, the things like the imagery, and the chair work, and being real with a person, they work with all sorts of different patterns.   

I feel like, pretty much whatever someone brings in, I can understand it in schema terms, and that's helpful. I've found that clients really like it, too. They seem to make changes a bit more quickly and at a deeper level for me than when I was practising using other approaches. 

Lucy: Now, if you've ever studied child psychology, you might recognise the word ‘schema’ from the work of a researcher called Jean Piaget. Piaget thought we all develop schemas, or frameworks, about how the world works, and that we either assimilate new ideas into these frameworks or we change the framework to make sense of new information.   

In schema therapy, the therapist is working with you to identify what your schemas are and to spot ones that might not be helpful. One of the things that I find interesting about schema therapy is that it brings together approaches which are often seen as quite different.  

Gill explained some of the different influences on the therapy, and the theory behind it. 

Gill: Schema therapy is what we call an ‘integrative therapy’. That means it has taken the stronge

How do we develop patterns of thinking and behaving from our earlier experiences?
What is Schema Focussed Therapy and how does it fit in the wider family of CBTs?
Dr Gill Heath and Mary speak to Dr Lucy Maddox. 
Show Notes and Transcript: 
If you’re interested in finding out more...
Websites
BABCP has a Schema Therapy Special Interest Group which you can find out about here: https://www.babcp.com/Membership/SIG/Schema-Therapy.aspx
The Schema Therapy Society has more information about the therapy and therapists, and some more resources: https://schematherapysociety.org
Books
The book we talk about in the episode is the first one:
Young, J. E., & Klosko, J. S. (1994). Reinventing Your Life: The Breakthough Program to End Negative Behavior... and Feel Great Again. Penguin.
Young, J. E., Klosko, J. S., & Weishaar, M. E. (2003). Schema therapy: A practitioner's guide. Guilford Press.
Rafaeli, E., Bernstein, D. P., & Young, J. (2010). Schema therapy: Distinctive features. Routledge.
Transcript
Lucy: This is Let's Talk About CBT, and I'm Dr Lucy Maddox. This series of podcasts, brought to you by the BABCP, explores cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, what it is, what it's not, and how it can be useful.  

We've been thinking about the wider family of CBTs, and today we're going to be thinking about schema-focused therapy.  

For this episode, like the others in the series, I spoke to somebody who has experienced schema therapy for themselves, as well as someone who is used to delivering schema therapy. I went to London to speak with Mary and Dr Gill Heath.  

Mary has been having schema therapy for a while, and she took the time to explain to me what it has been like for her and how she sees it. 

Mary: My understanding of schema therapy is it's like separating out the different ways that you think about things and so like looking at the different parts of yourself and the different ways of approaching things. So, like the part that is just furiously angry at things, or the part that’s just really, really, really sad and doesn't really understand why.  

It's separating those out and going, “Okay, when I'm feeling that, what is that?” so like, “What do I want when I'm feeling that? What are those? What's underneath those feelings? What am I trying to get to?” 

Lucy: I also spoke to Mary's therapist, Gill Heath, clinical psychologist and co-director of Schema Therapy Associates. She told me some of the things that she likes about using this approach. 

Gill: It's really flexible. In my experience, it seems to work with quite a broad range of issues because you can really understand the person's individual patterns. The techniques, the things like the imagery, and the chair work, and being real with a person, they work with all sorts of different patterns.   

I feel like, pretty much whatever someone brings in, I can understand it in schema terms, and that's helpful. I've found that clients really like it, too. They seem to make changes a bit more quickly and at a deeper level for me than when I was practising using other approaches. 

Lucy: Now, if you've ever studied child psychology, you might recognise the word ‘schema’ from the work of a researcher called Jean Piaget. Piaget thought we all develop schemas, or frameworks, about how the world works, and that we either assimilate new ideas into these frameworks or we change the framework to make sense of new information.   

In schema therapy, the therapist is working with you to identify what your schemas are and to spot ones that might not be helpful. One of the things that I find interesting about schema therapy is that it brings together approaches which are often seen as quite different.  

Gill explained some of the different influences on the therapy, and the theory behind it. 

Gill: Schema therapy is what we call an ‘integrative therapy’. That means it has taken the stronge

31 min

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