spiral2grow, a leading provider of schema therapy in New York City, has professionals that include schema therapist or schema-focused cognitive psychotherapists and behavioral therapist, who are expert in schema therapy. spiral2grow, located in midtown Manhattan at 260 Madison #8023, New York, NY 10016, offers schema treatment for self esteem and confidence, anger management, social anxiety, general anxiety. Schema Therapy is provided in individual psychotherapy method, as well as group therapy method.

Schema Therapy (ST) is an integrative therapeutic model, with a strong relational emphasis, designed to address deeper level maladaptive schematic beliefs and interpersonal patterns that are not responsive to first-line therapeutic approaches. The treatment targets the enduring schemas that are self-defeating patterns that usually developed early in life. These patterns consist of negative/dysfunctional thoughts and feelings, have been repeated and elaborated upon, and pose obstacles for achieving one’s goals and getting one’s needs met. Some examples of schema beliefs are: ‘No ones care or love me,” ‘I am a failure,” ‘People don’t love me,” ‘I am a loser,” ‘Something bad is going to happen,” ‘People are going to leave me,” ‘My needs will never be met,” ‘No matter what I do, I will never be good enough,” and so on. These schemas are perpetuated behaviorally through the coping mechanism (schema avoidance, and schema compensation) that only maintain the schema rather than changing it. The Schema-Focused model is designed to help the person to break these negative patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving, which are often very persistent, and to develop healthier alternatives to replace them.

Therapeutic techniques used in Schema therapy

Therapeutic techniques used in in Schema therapy process may include:

Imagery: Clients explore challenging and upsetting childhood memories in an attempt to understand the development of maladaptive schemas. Individuals are asked to imagine the sights, sounds, and other sensations involved in these memories and then carry on imaginary dialogues with the caregivers involved in these memories and ask for their needs to be met. With time, individuals become more aware and more able to identify the current situations eliciting similar emotions and may be more successful at getting needs met in healthy mature ways.

Flash cards: Schema psychotherapists work to help those in therapy create messages designed for the caregivers who failed to meet their childhood emotional needs. Flash can be used as reminders. This regular review is intended to help individuals learn how to make healthy, effective statements about their emotional needs to important people in their adult lives.

Chair work: This aspect of therapy assists clients identify variations in emotions and personality. In chair work, the person in therapy moves between two chairs, expressing different emotions and aspects of personality in each chair. Chair work can also be used to help a person in treatment imagine dialogues with family, friends, or significant others. In this work, a client might make statements regarding emotional needs while sitting in one chair and then move to another chair to play the role of a person who might meet these emotional needs. Imagery work is also often used in conjunction with chair work.

Journaling: Clients are asked to keep a journal while logging of any experiences activating early maladaptive schemas. In treatment, individuals can learn to identify the thinking patterns associated with these schemas. When these thinking patterns occur between sessions, the diary allows individuals to write about the associated situations, feelings, and behaviors. These journaling notes are then reviewed in session and can be helpful in determining methods of practicing new ways of meeting emotional needs as well as situations in which these methods may be best applied.

Learn more about other therapeutic approaches by spiral2grow in NYC.