Schema Therapy is an innovative, integrative form of treatment that blends elements of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), psychoanalysis, attachment theory, and emotion-focused therapy. It is specifically designed to help people identify and break deeply entrenched, negative patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving, which are known as "schemas."

Schema Therapy is grounded in the belief that these maladaptive schemas often develop in childhood when our core emotional needs are not met. Over time, these patterns become self-defeating, dictate our coping mechanisms, and determine how we view ourselves and interact with the world.

With Schema Therapy, you'll be able to identify your early maladaptive schemas and understand the specific coping styles you use to deal with them. This adjustment process focuses on healing these schemas by teaching you how to get your core emotional needs met in healthy, adaptive ways.

Some Schema Therapy techniques are:

• Imagery rescripting

• Chair work and role-playing

• Cognitive restructuring and challenging long-held beliefs

• Empathic confrontation

• Limited reparenting (a process where the therapist helps fulfill unmet childhood needs within the boundaries of the therapeutic relationship)

• Behavior pattern breaking