What is Schema Therapy?
Dr Katherine Coutsoudis is a Chartered Psychologist offering Schema Therapy and CBT for both adults and adolescents. She is considered to be an expert in the care and treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Schema therapy is an integrative model that combines different approaches like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Psychodynamic, Attachment Theory, Gestalt Therapy as well as other experiential approaches. What I like most of this model is that is very relatable and speaks to many.
What are schemas?
Schemas are intense, stable and enduring patterns that are developed in our childhood and adolescence and that are elaborated on during the course of our lives. They are templates from which see the world, comprising of our memories, our emotions, our thoughts and beliefs and our behaviours.
Take a child for example, who might have a schema of being unlovable or expecting to suffer the loss of people that are closest to them. They might have had experience of growing up of loss and rejection or their core need of connection to others might have been compromised. As an adult that person might engage in relationships that are unhealthy such as maybe gravitating towards people that are likely to abandon or reject them or even on the flip side of that, not getting into any relationships because of protecting themselves from being abandoned
What I like to do with my clients is help them to understand and identify any particular schemas or patterns that they have in their lives that are contributing to maintaining their emotional distress.
To find out more about Schema Therapy at The Soke, please contact The Soke’s Client Services Team.