Schema Therapy Proves Successful Across Multiple Mental Health Problems
What Is It and How Does It Work?
Schema therapy is used to break out of negative thought patterns and behaviours by realising the driving force behind them. It helps clients identify schemas – patterns of thinking and behaviour used to interpret the world – and restructure them by analysing their childhood and what influenced the way they are today. Through doing this, the client develops a better understanding of what they need to emotionally thrive, and how they can attain that.
Schema therapy can be used for:
- depression
- anxiety disorders
- relationship counselling
- work-related stress
- anger management
- self-esteem issues
- borderline personality disorder
- complex trauma or PTSD
- eating disorders
- substance abuse
How Did Your Childhood Impact You?
Your childhood has a significant impact on the way you see the world today, and negative beliefs picked up from that time can lead you to accept significant dysfunction without question.
Schema therapists in Melbourne work to correct this by challenging those views and understanding the truth of those situations. By shining a new light on them, symptoms of mental health struggles can be reduced if not eradicated, and healthier coping strategies can be implemented.
Additionally, PTSD therapy has adapted this approach to restructure the thinking of patients. It focuses on more than just the past experiences of the person in order to understand and recognise what their unmet emotional needs are. By then developing mechanisms and establishing systems to meet these needs, the symptoms of PTSD are reduced.
Melbourne’s Youth Mental Health Crisis
Melbourne is facing a mental health crisis with the stress of inflation, climate change, the housing crisis, and student debt weighing on the shoulders of the youth. 26.9 per cent of people aged 18-24 years in Melbourne reported having high or very high levels of psychological distress. Many young people in Melbourne and across Australia are feeling anxious, stressed, and overwhelmed about the future. Psychologists in Melbourne are working to tackle this crisis through their support of young people and giving them healthy coping mechanisms. Doing this leaves young people feeling more hopeful and gives them the recourse necessary to overcome their stresses.
If you are struggling with mental health, schema therapy may be the right pathway to take. By understanding what your unmet emotional needs are, the events surrounding your schemas, and learning to reframe that thinking to meet your needs, you can relieve the struggles and weight of mental health challenges.
