What is Schema Therapy?
Short-term cognitive therapy helps overcome symptoms of depression and anxiety for the majority of patients. However, if you experience lifelong patterns of negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, a therapeutic approach combining cognitive therapy with schema therapy can be more effective. Based on cognitive and behavioral techniques, schema therapy applies useful principles from constructivist, psychodynamic, object relations, and gestalt therapies. Compared with standard cognitive-behavioral therapy, schema therapy places greater value on your emotions, emphasizes the therapeutic relationship between you and your therapist as a vehicle for change, and places a greater importance on the childhood origins of your current difficulties. Typically longer-term than cognitive therapy, schema therapy helps you modify your behaviors and the ways people feel and relate to you. Schema therapy is especially helpful in treating chronic depression and anxiety, eating disorders (anorexia, bulim
