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Schema therapy in Brisbane
Patterns formed earlier in life can continue to shape how we think, feel and relate to others, often without us realising it. Our experienced team uses Schema Therapy to help you understand these deep-rooted patterns and build healthier, more fulfilling ways of relating to yourself and others.
What is Schema Therapy
Schema Therapy is an integrative, evidence-based therapy that was originally developed by Dr. Jeffery Young in the 1980s. It integrates concepts from various therapies such as cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), attachment theory, psychodynamic therapy, and experiential techniques.
It was originally developed to support people with long-standing emotional and interpersonal difficulties, particularly personality challenges and chronic mental health concerns. However, it has now been adapted for use in a range of mental health presentations.
Schema therapy proposes that persistent emotional and relationship difficulties can stem from early unhelpful schemas which are enduring patterns of beliefs, emotions, memories, bodily sensations and behaviours). These maladaptive schemas develop when core emotional needs are not adequately met during childhood or adolescence.
The Core Concepts of Schema Therapy
In schema therapy, the focus is on early maladaptive schemas, where unmet needs in childhood lead to the development of early maladaptive schemas. This is similar, in part, to beliefs - but thoughts, feelings and memories are also included in a schema, which then shapes how we think, feel, and behave.
Core Emotional Needs
From a Schema therapy perspective, children have core emotional needs that must be met to develop into emotionally healthy adults. If these needs are not met, then we can develop maladaptive schemas and coping modes to manage. The core emotional needs are:
- A secure attachment
- Autonomy, competence and identity
- Freedom to express valid needs and emotions
- Spontaneity and play
- Realistic limits and self control
Early Maladaptive Schemas
Maladaptive schemas are thought to develop when core emotional needs have not been adequately met. The following shows the 18 maladaptive schemas in schema therapy, which are grouped into 5 main types.
Schema Modes
When schemas are activated, people develop coping strategies, referred to in Schema Therapy as coping modes. Schema modes are momentary states of being or feeling. The four main categories are
- Child modes,
- Dysfunctional coping modes,
- Dysfunctional parent modes, and
- The healthy adult mode (see figure for details).
The goal of schema therapy is to help strengthen the Healthy Adult mode. At its core, this is about meeting the needs that lead to the schemas and learning to change coping modes that maintain these schemas, and set limits with critical modes.
How Schema Therapy Works
Elements of Schema Therapy might be included as part of ongoing assessment and therapy with your psychologist, or you may engage in a more structured schema therapy intervention. Elements of Schema Therapy include the following:
- Initial sessions: assessment and formulation: The first few sessions focus on understanding your personal history, relationships, and the patterns that have brought you to therapy. You'll explore your upbringing, early family relationships, and key life experiences. You may also complete a schema questionnaire, which helps your psychologist identify which early maladaptive schemas are most active for you and how they show up in your life today. And a collaborative formulation will be developed that summarizes the factors that were important in the onset and maintenance of your difficulties.
- Active therapy: As therapy progresses, sessions might include a range of Schema Therapy techniques and approaches such as experiential exercises (imagery rescripting and chair work), cognitive approaches (challenging beliefs), relational approaches (limited reparenting) and changing behavioural patterns (behavioural rehearsal and graded exposure). Sessions proceed at a pace that feels safe and manageable.
- Strengthening the Healthy Adult: A consistent focus throughout therapy is building your Healthy Adult mode. The part of you that can meet your own emotional needs, set appropriate limits, and respond to life with self-compassion rather than old coping patterns. Over time, this becomes less something you practice in sessions and more a natural way of relating to yourself and others.
When can Schema Therapy be helpful?
Schema therapy was originally developed to treat personality disorders, particularly borderline personality disorder (BPD), but its applications have expanded considerably. It is now used to address a wide range of emotional and relational problems.
Relationship Difficulties
Many people find themselves repeating the same painful patterns across relationships; choosing unavailable partners, feeling chronically uncared for or rejected, or struggling to assert their own needs. Schema therapy is well suited to these patterns because schemas are activated most powerfully in close relationships.
Chronic Depression and Anxiety
When depression or anxiety has been present for most of a person's life, or keeps returning despite treatment, Schema therapy may be helpful to create more lasting change. Schema therapy helps identify the underlying beliefs — such as defectiveness, failure, or emotional deprivation — that sustain these conditions over time.
Personality Challenges
Schema therapy has the strongest evidence base for borderline personality disorder (BPD). It is particularly effective because it addresses the deep-rooted beliefs and unmet childhood needs that underlie personality challenges, rather than just managing symptoms.
Perfectionism and Burnout
The unrelenting standards schema is one of the most common presentations in high-achieving adults and is often related to difficulties with anxiety and overworking / procrastination. Schema therapy helps people understand the early origins of their perfectionism and develop a healthier relationship with achievement, rest, and self-compassion.
Complex and Childhood Trauma
For people whose difficulties stem from neglect, abuse, or emotional deprivation in childhood, schema therapy offers a structured way to revisit and reprocess those early experiences. Techniques like imagery rescripting directly target the unmet needs behind traumatic memories.
Substance Misuse and Addictive Behaviours
Maladaptive coping modes, such as detached self-soother or impulsive child modes, can sometimes be represented in clients with substance misuse. Schema therapy addresses the emotional needs and avoidance patterns that drive these behaviours.
What can I get out of Schema Therapy?
For many people, schema therapy offers something that shorter-term approaches haven't a way to understand and change the deeper patterns that keep painful cycles repeating.
Rather than focusing only on current symptoms, schema therapy addresses the root causes.
Understanding yourself more deeply
One of the most consistent experiences clients report is a shift in self-understanding. When you can see that a painful pattern (e.g. chronic self-criticism, difficulty trusting others, always putting everyone else first) has roots in early experiences rather than being "just who you are," it becomes possible to relate to yourself with more compassion and acceptance, and less shame.
Live life more fully
When the old patterns are understood and new ways of thinking and relating develop, people often find they can engage in life more fully and do more of what matters.
Breaking patterns in relationships
Schemas are activated most powerfully in close relationships, which is why relationship difficulties are often where the pain is felt most acutely. Schema therapy helps you recognise which schemas are driving conflict, avoidance, or unhealthy attachment patterns, and gives you practical tools to respond differently.
Improved emotional regulation
As schemas become less reactive and coping modes become more flexible, most people find they are less easily overwhelmed by difficult emotions. Rather than flipping into avoidance, self-criticism, or emotional shutdown, they develop a wider range of responses and a greater capacity to sit with discomfort.
Work on deeper-level change, not just symptom relief
Schema therapy gets to the core of the problem in terms of unmet needs.
Greater self-compassion and reduced self-criticism
Many people who come to schema therapy carry an intense inner critic. Often linked to the punitiveness, unrelenting standards, or defectiveness schemas. A central goal of therapy is strengthening the Healthy Adult mode, which gradually replaces self-criticism with a more balanced, compassionate internal voice.
A therapy tailored to you
Schema therapy is highly individualised. Your psychologist builds a joint formulation with you, specific to your history and current challenges. Treatment length is also individualised.
Schema therapy summary
The aim of schema therapy is to better understand yourself and your history of unmet needs, maladaptive schemas, and coping modes. And to engage in a range of approaches to strengthen the Healthy Adult mode to enable you to regulate emotions more effectively, have more self-compassion, develop healthier interpersonal relationships, and live life more fully.
Psychologists who utilise schema therapy in their work
Jac Tichbon
SENIOR CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST
Megan Samuel
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST
Madison Brennan
PSYCHOLOGIST
Dr Sarah Pollock
TEAM LEADER - CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST & CLINICAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST
Dr Sascha Hardwick
DIRECTOR - CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST & CLINICAL NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST
Resources:
- Reinventing Your Life: https://scribepublications.com.au/books/reinventing-your-life
- Schema Therapy: A Practitioner's Guide: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1524230.Schema_Therapy
Reviewed:
This page was clinically reviewed by Dr Sascha Hardwick, Clinical Psychologist & Clinical Neuropsychologist, Registered psychologist with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). Review date: July 2026.