Schema Therapy Sydney

Do you feel like history keeps repeating itself? Perhaps your views, reinforced by memories, towards self are quite negative? From past experiences, have you integrated them into developing negative beliefs about self?

What is Schema Therapy?

Schema Therapy targets maladaptive thinking patterns known as schemas, which often originate in childhood due to unmet emotional and physical needs or improper boundaries. These schemas can lead to negative behaviours in adulthood, such as avoidance, surrendering or overcompensation, impacting relationships and emotional wellbeing. By combining aspects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Psychoanalysis, and Gestalt therapy, Schema Therapy helps individuals recognise, understand, and modify these patterns to foster healthier coping mechanisms and improve relationships.

Schema Therapy achieves its goals through several key techniques:

Identification of Schemas

The therapist helps you identify your maladaptive schemas by exploring your thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, particularly in problematic areas of your life such as relationships or work.

Understanding the Origin

Through exploration and reflection, the therapist helps you understand how your schemas developed, often tracing them back to childhood experiences where emotional needs were unmet or boundaries were not properly established.

Challenging and Restructuring

Once identified, the therapist assists you in challenging and restructuring your maladaptive beliefs and behaviours. This may involve cognitive restructuring techniques to address negative thought patterns and develop more adaptive coping strategies.

Experiential Techniques

Schema Therapy incorporates experiential techniques such as imagery, role-playing, and chair work to help you connect emotionally with your schemas and work through unresolved issues from the past.

Limited Reparenting

In some cases, the therapist may provide “limited reparenting,” offering support and guidance to meet your unmet emotional needs in a therapeutic setting, helping you develop a more secure sense of self.

Behavioural Techniques

Behavioural techniques, such as homework assignments or behavioural experiments, may be used to facilitate behavioural change and reinforce new coping strategies.

Find a Schema Therapist

Jono Derkenne

Accredited Mental Health Social Worker

Jono (He/Him) is an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker.

Annabel Igoe

Social Worker, Psychotherapist & Yoga

Annabel (She/Her) is an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker (BSW, MSW), Psychotherapist & Yoga Teacher.

Brooke Smith

Registered Psychologist

Brooke is a Psychologist with a background in the not-for-profit mental health and LGBTIQ health sectors.

Carli McIntyre

Occupational Therapist

Carli is a registered Occupational Therapist with 22 years’ experience in community & hospital mental health.

Chauncey Sjostedt

Gestalt Therapist

Chauncey (She/Her) is a dedicated healthcare professional with over ten years of experience

Understanding Schema Therapy

Schema Therapy is a distinctive psychotherapeutic approach that aims to address and amend deeply ingrained patterns of thought and behaviour, known as schemas, which can often be longstanding and complex. It integrates principles from cognitive-behavioural therapy, psychoanalytic approaches, and attachment theory to offer a comprehensive treatment that targets the roots of emotional and cognitive difficulties. This therapy is particularly effective for individuals with personality disorders, chronic mental health issues, or those who have not responded adequately to other therapeutic approaches.

What Is Schema Therapy?

Schema Therapy is designed to address and treat the deeper aspects of mental health issues, particularly those rooted in childhood experiences. Schemas are stable, enduring patterns that typically begin early in life and repeat throughout life. These patterns are developed to help manage pain and emotional needs but often become maladaptive as a person grows older.

The core focus of Schema Therapy is to:

Identify deeply ingrained patterns or schemas.
Understand how these patterns are linked to past experiences and current issues.
Modify these schemas to reduce their negative effects on the individual’s life.

How Does Schema Therapy Work?

Schema Therapy in Sydney involves a series of structured phases designed to help clients identify, confront, and modify unhelpful schemas. The therapeutic process typically unfolds as follows:

Assessment Phase
- The therapist and client work together to identify key life challenges and trace them back to early schemas.
- An assessment of emotional needs that were unmet in childhood is conducted, helping to link these needs to current issues.
Awareness and Education Phase
- Clients are educated about schemas and how they manifest in daily life.
- Techniques such as cognitive restructuring are used to help the client recognise and challenge schema-driven thoughts.
Experiential Phase
- Clients engage in experiential exercises such as imagery and chair work to explore their schemas and the emotions attached to them.
- This phase helps to evoke change at the emotional level, not just cognitively.
Behavioural Change Phase
- Clients are encouraged to practise new behaviours that counteract their maladaptive schemas.
- Behavioural pattern-breaking and real-life role-plays are incorporated to solidify new, healthier patterns of thinking and behaving.

Benefits of Schema Therapy

Schema Therapy is a progressive and innovative psychological treatment that has proven effective in addressing deep-seated emotional patterns and behaviours. Here, we explore why individuals in Sydney might consider Schema Therapy, how it helps in mastering emotional control, and the enduring changes it can foster.

Why Choose Schema Therapy in Sydney?

Expertise in Complex Emotional Disorders: Sydney therapists are renowned for their depth of understanding and expertise in handling complex emotional disorders. Many practitioners here have extensive training and experience in Schema Therapy, which is designed to address such complexities through a well-structured and evidence-based framework.
Access to Qualified Professionals: The city provides wide access to highly qualified therapists who are skilled in Schema Therapy. These professionals are committed to ongoing education and are often involved in research and development in the field, ensuring they employ the most effective strategies and interventions.
Supportive Therapeutic Environment: Sydney offers a supportive environment that promotes healing and growth. The therapeutic community is well-connected, which means practitioners often collaborate to enhance treatment efficacy and personalise therapy to individual needs.
Cultural Competence: With a diverse population, therapists in Sydney are culturally competent and able to customise treatments for the varied needs of clients from different backgrounds, ensuring a respectful and understanding approach to therapy.

Take Control of Your Emotions

Understanding Emotional Triggers: Schema Therapy helps clients identify and understand the origins of emotional triggers that stem from early life experiences. By connecting past influences to present feelings, clients can recognise and anticipate situations that may provoke emotional responses.
Developing Healthy Coping Strategies: Through the therapeutic process, clients learn to replace maladaptive coping mechanisms with healthier ones. This is crucial in managing intense emotions under stress or in triggering situations.
Enhancing Emotional Regulation: Clients are taught skills to increase their tolerance for distressing emotions, enabling them to process feelings more effectively and respond to situations in a balanced manner.
Building Psychological Resilience: As clients master their emotions, they build resilience, allowing them to face life’s challenges with greater confidence and less distress.

Long-Term Results and Lasting Change

Breaking Free from Negative Patterns: One of the most significant advantages of Schema Therapy is its ability to help individuals break free from persistent negative behavioural patterns that disrupt their lives. This change is achieved by addressing the root causes of these behaviours, ensuring changes are deep and enduring.
Improved Relationships: By understanding their own emotional needs and responses, clients can interact more healthily and constructively with others. This often leads to improved personal and professional relationships.
Sustained Emotional Health: Clients learn to maintain their emotional health and prevent relapses into old habits by continually applying the strategies learned during therapy.
Overall Life Satisfaction: As clients make meaningful changes to their thought patterns and behaviours, they often experience a significant improvement in overall life satisfaction, enjoying a fuller and more balanced life.

Contact Us for Schema Therapy in Sydney

If you’re considering Schema Therapy in Sydney, Connecting Mental Health provides access to a network of highly trained therapists who specialise in this method. Our platform ensures you can find a therapist that meets your specific needs, offering flexible scheduling to accommodate your lifestyle.

Connect with Connecting Mental Health Today

To start your journey with Schema Therapy, you can book a session through our easy-to-use online platform. We’re committed to providing you with quality care and supporting you every step of the way on your path to better mental health.