Schema Therapy at Elsternwick’s Your Psychologist

Schema therapy is a form of psychotherapy used to help patients with ongoing issues. The aim is to solve deep-rooted issues, going beyond temporary symptom reduction. Your Psychologist specialises in schema therapy, offering Elsternwick locals the chance to address long-standing feelings and concerns. 

A schema refers to our emotional state that defines:

• how we see ourselves and our relationships with others
• how we interpret memories, emotions, thoughts and beliefs in everyday situations
• how we cope, respond and make decisions about everyday situations.

Schemas develop through our basic emotional needs are not being met in childhood and adolescence from attachment figures (such as parents, teachers or peers). We develop critic or maladaptive coping modes (also known as Schema Modes) to survive when our buttons get pushed, with these behaviours repeatedly manifesting throughout our lives.

As a psychologist practicing schema therapy in Elsternwick, I help to address the following 18 schemas: 

• Abandonment/instability 
• Mistrust/abuse 
• Emotional deprivation 
• Defectiveness/shame 
• Social isolation/alienation
• Dependence/incompetence
• Vulnerability to harm or illness 
• Enmeshment/undeveloped self 
• Failure to achieve 
• Entitlement/grandiosity 
• Insufficient self-control/self-discipline 
• Subjugation 
• Self-sacrifice 
• Approval-seeking/recognition-seeking 
• Negativity/pessimism 
• Emotional inhibition 
• Unrelenting standards/hypercriticalness 
• Punitiveness 

Book a session to start experiencing the benefits of schema therapy. 

What schema therapy offers

As I guide you through schema therapy, we will: 

• explore how you came to develop your schema and the role this plays in your anxiety or depression
• understand how mindfulness can help you cope better and improve your health and wellbeing
• understand how your mental and emotional state is affected by your physical response to things and how this contributes to either stress or a sense of wellbeing
• learn and apply different ways of behaving to help you recover from anxiety or depression.

Getting to the root of why and how your schema was formed will equip you with the tools necessary to manage and overcome it throughout your life.

Look at my approach to Schema Therapy. I have program for individuals and couples.

How schema therapy can help 

Schema therapy helps you learn why you behave the way you do in certain situations, and teaches you how to actively change the way you think and feel. Likely benefits include creating more healthy behaviours, attitudes and beliefs which can lessen anxiety and depression.

These benefits depend on your particular circumstances and require you to fully participate in necessary care and management. If you or someone you know would benefit from Schema Therapy, please don’t hesitate to contact Your Psychologist to discuss the most suitable therapies. Bear in mind that schema therapy is a longer-term therapy typically requiring around 20 sessions. 

If schema therapy isn’t quite right for you, Your Psychologist may still be able to help through the offering of relationship counselling, career counselling, executive coaching and anger management counselling.