Peter Gasper & Associates
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    • Identiying problems & setting goals
    • Dealing with negative thoughts
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Schema Therapy

Schema therapy aims to help you to identify & modify Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMS).

Schemas can be defined as a long standing & often entrenched pattern or theme in the way a person thinks, feels & acts. 

Early Maladaptive Schemas:
  • are developed early in life as a result of negative childhood experiences & the innate temperament of the individual
  • are elaborated on throughout a person's life i.e. become reinforced through a person's learning & experiences
  • are triggered by different events or aspects of a person's environment that relate to the EMS
  • generate significant personal distress & highly dysfunctional behavior when triggered
  • interferes with an individual's ability to achieve their desired goals e.g. maintain a relationship, keep a job, parent their children, try new challenges
  • are habitual & highly resistant to change

Examples of EMS include:

Emotional Deprivation:        "I will never get the love I need"
Abandonment:                     "People will leave me"
Mistrust/Abuse:                    "People cannot be trusted"
Defectiveness/Shame:         "I am flawed/There is something wrong with me"

Schema therapy aims to help you:
  • identify your EMS
  • fully experience the schema in order to recognise when it is operating
  • modify the schema via the use of more functional & adaptive thoughts & behaviours

Schema therapy is a longer term therapy that is intended to help people with longstanding & often entrenched problems.


Further information on Schema Therapy
Peter Gasper & Associates Clinical Psychologists
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