Schema therapy (ST) is an integrative approach incorporating components of experiential and Gestalt treatments, attachment and object relations theories, and cognitive behavioral therapy. Since its introduction by Jeff Young in 1990, it has undergone development and improvement. One thought-to be useful method for understanding and treating personality problems is schema therapy. Jacob and Arntz (2013) and Rafaeli, Bernstein, and Young (2011) outline a few of the unique characteristics of schema therapy. Compared to conventional CBT, ST emphasizes the evolution of present symptoms more. ST places a strong emphasis on the Read more
What is Schema Therapy?
ISST
Our training programs and workshops are accredited with the international society of Schema Therapy Jeffrey Young founded the International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST) in 2008. In addition to providing standards of excellence for the practice of schema therapy, the ISST also accredits training facilities for the profession and grants accreditation as a schema therapist to practitioners who hold a license to practice in their home countries. Finally, the ISST is dedicated to promoting the principles and application of schema therapy and brings together clinicians, researchers, and educators from around the globe.
Schema Therapy Egypt
Dr. Ahmed Hanafy Mahmoud founded Schema Therapy Egypt in January 2023 with the intention of offering psychotherapy and training services in Egypt and the Arab Region at the pinnacle of excellence for the application of schema therapy principles. Our services: 1- Accredited training programs: - Basic Curriculum of Schema therapy program for individual therapy - Schema therapy program for Adolescents and Children - Schema Therapy program for Group Therapy - Schema Therapy program for Couple therapy 2- Workshops: - Schema therapy step by step - Experiential techniques in Schema therapy - Cognitive techniques in schema therapy - Schema therapy for cluster B, C personality Read more
Dr.Ahmed Hanafy
Ahmed Hanafy Mahmoud, Ph.D. Founder of Schema Therapy Egypt Founder of Egyptian Institute of Cognitive Therapies Consultant Psychologist at Maudsley Health Abu Dhabi, UAE Clinical Psychologist with 20 years of experience in adults. My main interests are in Addiction Rehabilitation, Personality Disorders, PTSD and complex trauma, Sexual Disorders and OCD. am specialist at CBT and Schema Therapy. Read more
“Almost everyone has experienced emotions such as sadness, anxiety, or anger, but not everyone develops major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, or panic disorder. What gives rise to the persistence of emotions that then develop into psychological disorders? I emphasize throughout this book that it is not only the experience of emotion that matters, but also the interpretations of those emotions and the strategies one employs to cope with or regulate them. There are pathways from painful emotions to psychopathology, and different pathways from painful emotions to adaptive life strategies. The view advanced here is that one’s interpretations and responses to painful emotions will determine whether psychopathology arises from the experience. For instance, one can experience intense sadness without developing major depress.”...
Emotional Schema Therapy, 2015, P. 4.
“Behavioral pattern-breaking targets coping styles: The behaviors that are the focus of change are the ones patients use in surrendering to, avoiding, and overcompensating for their Early Maladaptive Schemas. These are the self-defeating behaviors patients employ to cope when their schemas are triggered: the unfounded jealous accusations of the patient with an Abandonment schema, the self-deprecatory comments of the patient with a Defectiveness schema, the advice-soliciting of the patient with a Dependence schema, the obedience of the subjugated patient; the phobic avoidance of the patient who has a Vulnerability to Harm or Illness schema. These surrender, avoidance, and over compensatory behaviors ultimately serve to perpetuate schemas. Patients must change their coping styles in order to heal their schemas and thereby fill the unmet needs that brought them into therapy.”...
Schema Therapy A practitioner’s Guide, 2003, P. 147.
“Creating a safe therapeutic relationship is the central point of this therapy. While applying experiential, cognitive and behavioral techniques, the therapist continues to employ the described style of limited reparenting. Time and time again he will approach specific problems with a specific technique in a friendly but clear and determined manner, as this is also the best way to behave towards a child whom you want to teach something. He will balance the change of techniques so as not to overwhelm the patient on the one hand, and not under - stimulate her on the other. For example, when by using imagination strong emotions are triggered, it is sensible to take a little extra time during the next session to discuss what happened in the previous session and give it a place in a cognitive sense.”...
Schema Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder,2009,P.47.
“What makes a person attractive to you? Is it good looks? Power and status? Money? Talent? Personality attributes, such as a sense of humor? Intelligence? Virtues, such as honesty or spirituality? Most of us are reasonably clear about our likes and dislikes, but there are other forces at work that influence the choice of a lover or marital partner. Attraction operates in less obvious ways. The notion of attraction takes us to the edge of our psychological awareness. It’s where the light of understanding meets the twilight of what is just out of sight. This is like Carl Jung’s (1938) notion of a shadow side to the personality. Harville Hendrix (1988) considered attraction to be an unconscious dynamic in a relationship.”...
Breaking Negative Relationship Patterns, 2017, P. 41.
“You may find yourself drawn to similar relationship dynamics and environments that you experienced as a child. Are you attracted to people who are rejecting, critical, inconsistent, abusive, unpredictable, distant, indifferent, chaotic, or ambivalent even though they make you feel bad about yourself? When you are faced with a stressful situation do you become clingy, compliant, angry, manipulative, blaming, demanding, critical, or controlling? Or do you withdraw, isolate, pout, numb out (e.g., with drugs, alcohol, food), distract yourself (e.g., shopping, sex, risk taking, gambling), or dissociate? Your core beliefs have you trapped in emotions, thoughts, and behaviors that are hurtful, and they are denying you the happiness and healthy loving relationships that you desire and deserve. What if you could take a journey that would give you the tools to step out of your story, take the power and control away from your story, understand your fear of abandonment (and...
Love Me Don’t Leave Me, 2014, P.8.
“Practicing self-compassion means softening your heart and distancing yourself from your inner critic and the negative statements that reinforce your fear of abandonment and feelings of unworthiness and inadequacy. To get some emotional distance from your inner critic, let’s look at the ways in which he is being unhelpful. Treat yourself with compassion. When you make a mistake— and you will—acknowledge the mistake without judgment, accept the pain without struggle, care about yourself, comfort yourself, and stay in the moment with your experience rather than using it to keep your stories from the past alive or fuel your catastrophic stories about the future.”...
Love Me Don’t Leave Me, 2014, P.108, 111.
“Schema Therapy sees adult interpersonal problems as the result of negative schemas fixed in childhood. The schemas remain more or less unchanged. Once triggered, they revive the same feelings, appraisals, and tendencies to react as in a distressed child. You might liken it to a person who steps into a time machine and then returns to childhood to a similar reaction. The adult becomes the child again. Hence, this state is called a child mode. The activation of a child mode indicates that a core need has not been meet (The exception is the Happy Child mode). Usually, the person keeps seeking some fulfillment. In this way, child modes have a signal character. Young proposed that a schema therapist respond with “limited re‐ parenting.” This intervention may differ from what is proposed by therapies that discourage any dependence upon the therapist. But when the child’s needs are more consistently met,...
Schema Therapy with Couples A Practitioner’s Guide to Healing Relationships, 2015, P.7.
“ Thoughts are just suggestions and feelings, just feelings! You don ’ t have to follow them –watch them come and go! ”Or, in the words of an old Chinese saying: “ You cannot stop a bird flying over your head, but you can keep it from building a nest in your hair. ”This is the basic attitude of meditation and allows us to distance ourselves from our spontaneous tendency to identify ourselves with what we feel or do –what Segal, Willams and Teasdale (2001)call the “ doing - mode. ”By contrast, in a mindful state we experience ourselves as a constantly present internal observer, who is independent of the changing content of our consciousness. Segal and colleagues call this the “ being - mode. ”...
The Wiley- Blackwell Handbook of Schema Therapy, 2012, P.240.
“The Healthy Adult mode is the state of mind that represents maturity and psychological health. It equates with sound judgment in making decisions, responsibility in relationships, and good self‐care. It’s probably located in the working memory of your forebrain. That’s under the area on your forehead that you probably sometimes point to when trying to express to somebody else that you’re not stupid. So you’re actually pointing at the right place! A healthy person has more independence and is less dominated by patterns of reactivity. This is why we recommend that you work hard to strengthen your Healthy Adult, instead of expecting your partner to be the Healthy Adult in your relationship (such an expectation might sometimes work if you have some flexibility with roles, but it isn’t a long‐term solution). The encounter between two Healthy Adults is foundational to a healthy relationship. In this adaptive mental space, you’re able...
Breaking Negative Relationship Patterns, 2017, P.172.
“The Angry Child Mode reflects the innate response of a child to a need not being met. In this mode a person needs to be allowed to vent and be heard, within reasonable limits. It is important that we make it clear to patients that we are not afraid of their anger and that we will set limits on them becoming abusive if they are not be able to. This is reassuring for patients who fear their own anger as they have only seen anger be abusive and out of control with people being physically hurt. It is also reassuring for patients who are terrified of others’ expression of anger because of experiencing abuse or others abused in their families. We frequently have patients say: “We dealt with a conflict and no one was killed!”...
The schema therapy Clinician’s Guide,2014,P.246.
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