Experiencing Schema Therapy from the Inside Out: A Self-Practice/Self-Reflection Workbook For Therapists

This unique resource helps therapists build their skills in schema therapy (ST) by applying ST techniques to themselves and reflecting on the experience. Designed for use by individuals or groups, the book harnesses the power of self-practice/self-reflection (SP/SR), an evidence-based training strategy. Twenty modules take therapists step by step through using ST to address a professional or personal problem: from establishing safety and creating a self-conceptualisation to implementing mode change work, including cognitive, experiential, and behavioural pattern-breaking interventions.

In a convenient large-size format, the book is illustrated with vivid therapist examples and features numerous reproducible worksheets and forms for doing the SP/SR exercises.

Purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials.

This book will be useful for therapists of all levels of experience, including clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers, counsellors, and psychiatric nurses.

Table of Contents

Foreword, Wendy T. Behary and Jeffrey E. Young

1. Introducing Experiencing Schema Therapy from the Inside Out
2. The Conceptual Model of Schema Therapy
3. Guidance for Participants
4. Guidance for Facilitators

Introduction to the Workbook Modules

I. Connection and Safety: Setting the Stage for Schema Therapy Self-Practice/Self-Reflection

• Module 1. Connection and Safety
• Module 2. Establishing Your Baseline

II. Understanding Your Identified Problem: Using Schema Therapy Concepts

• Module 3. Understanding the Development of Your Early Maladaptive Schemas
• Module 4. Stories of Childhood Experience and Assessment Imagery
• Module 5. Your Schema Therapy Self-Conceptualization

III. Planning Change: Self-Monitoring, Problem Analysis, and Goals

• Module 6. The Operation of Modes in Your Current Life
• Module 7. Your Schema Therapy Change Plan

IV. The Beginning of Change: Mode Awareness and Mode Management

• Module 8. Awareness of Your Maladaptive Coping Modes
• Module 9. A Management Plan for Your Maladaptive Coping Modes
• Module 10. Awareness of Your Dysfunctional Critic Modes
• Module 11. A Management Plan for Your Dysfunctional Critic Modes
• Module 12. Strengthening Your Healthy Adult Mode
• Module 13. Reviewing Progress and Planning Further Change

V. Experiential Mode Change Work

• Module 14. Awareness of Your Angry or Impulsive/Undisciplined Child Mode
• Module 15. Awareness of Your Vulnerable Child Mode
• Module 16. A Management Plan for Your Vulnerable Child Mode
• Module 17. Fighting Your Dysfunctional Critic Modes
• Module 18. Healing Your Vulnerable Child Mode

VI. Maintaining and Strengthening Change

• Module 19. Finding and Strengthening Your Happy Child Mode
• Module 20. Strengthening Your Access to the Healthy Adult Mode

VII. Summary Self-Reflective Questions

References

"Leading schema therapists Farrell and Shaw draw on their great depth of experience to provide this comprehensive, authoritative guide. As psychotherapists, when our own maladaptive schemas are triggered and we switch into defensive coping modes, our capacity to help our clients becomes significantly limited. Self-practice and self-reflection are fundamental activities for anyone who wants to develop and mature as a schema therapist. The authors offer a clear and accessible account of ST theory and practice that makes it easy to apply, whether we are working with our own process or that of our clients. This lucid book is a valuable resource for therapists seeking to develop their skills as well as trainers and supervisors offering guidance to others."
- David Edwards, PhD, Department of Psychology, Rhodes University, South Africa; President, International Society of Schema Therapy

"Why work with this book? Because it will make you a better therapist! This is a 'must read' for schema therapists and therapists in general. SP/SR is a profound and practical training approach perfectly suited to ST, which combines the depth of psychodynamic psychotherapy with aspects of cognitive and behavioral therapy. The book is systematic and easy to grasp for therapists of different theoretical backgrounds, and the authors are outstanding experts in the field. Using SP/SR can increase schema therapists' understanding of patients' experiences and attunement to their issues; in addition, it can provide us with greater satisfaction and happiness in our own lives."
- Eckhard Roediger, MD, Director, Frankfurt Schema Therapy Institute, Germany

"This well-organized workbook takes therapists on a personal journey through the process of ST. With a gentle, wisely experienced voice, Farrell and Shaw lay out stepping stones to deepen self-understanding and self-care and link this insight to one's work as a therapist. Concrete SP/SR exercises help therapists connect the dots between their developmental experiences, core schemas and coping patterns, and between schema and mode concepts and cognitive, experiential, and behavioral interventions. ST is a compassionate, appealing, and effective treatment option to resolve interpersonal and intrapersonal problems, and this workbook is an ideal resource for exploring it. I found the book personally relevant and helpful. I will strongly recommend it to my students and colleagues at all levels."
- Denise D. Davis, PhD, Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University

"Why work with this book? Because it will make you a better therapist! This is a 'must read' for schema therapists and therapists in general. SP/SR is a profound and practical training approach perfectly suited to ST, which combines the depth of psychodynamic psychotherapy with aspects of cognitive and behavioral therapy. The book is systematic and easy to grasp for therapists of different theoretical backgrounds, and the authors are outstanding experts in the field. Using SP/SR can increase schema therapists' understanding of patients' experiences and attunement to their issues; in addition, it can provide us with greater satisfaction and happiness in our own lives."
- Eckhard Roediger, MD, Director, Frankfurt Schema Therapy Institute, Germany

"This well-organized workbook takes therapists on a personal journey through the process of ST. With a gentle, wisely experienced voice, Farrell and Shaw lay out stepping stones to deepen self-understanding and self-care and link this insight to one's work as a therapist. Concrete SP/SR exercises help therapists connect the dots between their developmental experiences, core schemas and coping patterns, and between schema and mode concepts and cognitive, experiential, and behavioral interventions. ST is a compassionate, appealing, and effective treatment option to resolve interpersonal and intrapersonal problems, and this workbook is an ideal resource for exploring it. I found the book personally relevant and helpful. I will strongly recommend it to my students and colleagues at all levels."
- Denise D. Davis, PhD, Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University