When common Psychological therapies
failed
Dave (name changed) told his psychologist that he often wakes
up feeling anxious without knowing why and he would often panic for no reason. He
went to see a number psychologists, counselors and psychiatrists but his
situation did not change much.
Panic disorder, bipolar depression, as recently dramatized
in popular Hollywood movie A Star is Born, personality disorders are often
difficult to achieve remission despite psychotherapy and pharmacological drug
therapy.
Although CBT is often used for major depressive disorder,
there are studies that found that CBT was ineffective when treating severely depressed
patients (Driessen & Hollon, 2010). Other research (Johnsen and Friborg
(2015)) found CBT to get less effective over time. This is because CBT focuses
on patient’s cognition or thinking. However, we are more than just thinking
beings. We have emotions and deep psychological needs and many unmet childhood
needs. In such cases, schema therapy is able to help those suffering from these
difficult psychological disorders connect with these experiences.
Schema Therapy offers new hope
Schema therapy (ST), also known as third wave CBT, was
devised as the treatment for more pervasive, enduring psychological disorders,
such as major depression and Borderline Personality Disorder, in which other psychotherapy
methods such traditional CBT was less successful. Dr. Jeffrey Young, the
founder of ST who also founded the International Society for Schema Therapy
believed that to successfully treat these and most psychological disorders
successfully and in a more lasting fashion, the therapist needs to help the
patient uncover and change their deep subconscious programs – called schema
that have locked us in repetitive negative and self-sabotaging patterns of behavior.
Training in Schema Therapy is
Effective in successful treatment outcome
In schema therapy, the patient works with a therapist to
uncover and understand their schemas or early maladaptive schemas. Schemas are
unhelpful patterns that many of us develop when our emotional needs are not met
when we were children. The effectiveness of schema therapy is reported by numerous
research such as the one by Hashemi and Darvishzadeh (2016). The researchers
concluded that schema therapy training is effective in reducing the symptoms of
depression, promoting mental health, and preventing mental injuries. Schema
therapy’s effectiveness can be attributed to specific elements such as the
therapist’s bonding with the patient through re-parenting and schema change. The
therapy tracks back into the history and past traumatic childhood experiences
of the patients and identifies how their current negative emotions and
behaviors are affected by those past experiences. These has not be done in
other counselling, psychological, and psychiatric therapies which often focus
only on the current situations of the patients. In doing, Schema Therapy is
able to reformat our past negative experiences which all of us have despite the
best effort and intention of our parents. Only then can we break free of our
patterns of negative behaviors which other forms of psychological and
psychiatric therapies had not been able to help patients do.
Finally, Dave was recommended by one of his friends to visit
psychologists at the International Psychology Centre (www.Psychology.com.my)
who were trained in Schema Therapy. On the first session itself, his therapist
identified a childhood memory where he woke one day and found his dad had gone
away. Although now he knows his dad was away on a business trip but at that
time no one had explained that sufficiently to him and he felt scared and
abandoned. This was how he developed his abandonment schema. The psychologist hypnotized
Dave back to that memory and appeared with young Dave to give him the assurance
he needed at that time that his dad will be back and be with him whilst he
missed his dad. Dave’s traumatic memory was reformatted. His abandonment schema
was transformed to a healthy schema. Now Dave is able to sleep well, feels
confident with himself and is able to feel happy which he has not been able to
do for a very long time.
Psychologists at the International Psychology Centre (www.Psychology.com.my) are trained in Schema Therapy
which have helped hundreds of patients suffering chronic psychological
disorders that other therapies have failed to treat.
The International Psychology Centre (www.Psychology.com.my) with the Malaysian Association for
Psychotherapy (www.MalaysianPsychotherapy.net) will be organizing a Schema
Therapy certification training accredited by the International Society for
Schema Therapy at the post-Conference workshop of the 4th
International Psychotherapy, Counseling & Psychiatry Conference: www.ISPCP-TRCP.org, April 29th- May 1st
2020. Psychologists, counsellors, psychiatrists and other mental health
practitioners are invited to register as well as presenting their research or
clinical work at the conference which
will be published in the International Journal of Psychotherapy, Counseling
& Psychiatry (www.IJPCP.com).
This article is contributed by the International Psychology
Centre. For further information please contact:
☎ :+ 603 27277434
Info@Psychology.com.my
www.SchemaTherapyAsia.net; www.Psychology.com.my
Fb: SchemaTherapyAsia
Blog: malaysianpsychology.wordpress.com
