What Are Schemas?

A brief introduction to schema therapy

Schema therapy is an integrative therapy initially developed for treating complex, longstanding, and diffuse psychological difficulties. It combines cognitive, behavioral, attachment, gestalt, object relationships, constructivist, psychoanalytic, and neurobiological approaches within a unifying conceptual model (Young, 1990, 1999; Young et al., 2003). Additional interventions have since been outlined, such as EMDR (Young et al., 2002), mindfulness (van Vreeswijk et al., 2014), and body-focused methods (Briedis & Startup, 2020). Schema therapy expands on CBT by emphasizing the developmental origins of psychological problems, incorporating relational and experiential interventions, and targeting the maladaptive coping styles that perpetuate these difficulties (Young et al., 2003).

Early maladaptive schemas

Schemas are enduring, foundational mental structures that play an essential role in cognitive processing, enabling humans to represent the complexities of the world (Rafaeli et al., 2016). By simplifying reality, they make the vast array of information we encounter manageable, enabling quick

"Early maladaptive schemas are negative themes or patterns in your thoughts and feelings that repeat themselves throughout your life. People usually develop these schemas in response to difficult childhood experiences. As adults, they influence how we see and respond to our experiences in unhelpful ways. You could think of them as unhealthy ‘traps’ that we keep falling into. Can we explore whether schemas might be relevant to your difficulties?"

• "When you think about your life, are there any negative themes that seem to run through it?"
• "Have you noticed unhelpful relationship patterns that you keep falling into?"
• "Would you say there is a negative ‘same old story’ that seems to define your life?"
• "Do you keep having similar setbacks in your life or your relationships?"
• "Most schemas can be phrased as negative beliefs that you hold about yourself, other people, or the world. Can you try putting your schema(s)

• Alba, J., Calvete, E., Wante, L., Van Beveren, M. L., & Braet, C. (2018). Early maladaptive schemas as moderators of the association between bullying victimization and depressive symptoms in adolescents. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 42, 24-35. DOI: 10.1007/s10608-017-9874-5.
• Arntz, A., Rijkeboer, M., Chan, E., Fassbinder, E., Karaosmanoglu, A., Lee, C. W., & Panzeri, M. (2021). Towards a reformulated theory underlying schema therapy: Position paper of an international workgroup. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 45, 1007-1020. DOI: 10.1007/s10608-021-10209-5.
• Bach, B., Lockwood, G., & Young, J. E. (2018). A new look at the schema therapy model: organization and role of early maladaptive schemas. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 47, 328-349. DOI: 10.1080/16506073.2017.1410566.
• Beck, A. T. (2015). Theory of personality disorders. In A. T. Beck, D. D. Denise, & A. Freeman (Eds.), Cognitive therapy of personality disorders (3rd ed.) (pp.19-62). Guilford Press.
• Beck, A. T., Freeman, A., & Davis, D. D. (2004). Cognitive therapy of