I really like schema therapy and I practice it, in conjunction with DBT actually. DBT gives you skills so that you can tolerate distress and learn how to handle challenging situations. I suggest that my clients go through DBT first, and then once they have the skills they will be in a better position to do well with schema therapy.

Schema therapy goes beyond immediate coping skills and helps you to understand and change lifelong patterns so that you can heal and have a healthier way of living than you did before. We develop those patterns because they were what we needed to do in order to deal with our circumstances earlier in life, but those patterns also keep us stuck because they are not appropriate to new situations and relationships and circumstances, or to the way that we want to live our lives. You have to have compassion for yourself and understand why you do what you do, and then you will be free to make new choices. I feel that schema therapy reaches beyond DBT and allows you to process more of what is at the root of things.

I also think that it is uncommon for people to be aware of schema therapy. It is spreading and catching on, and the ideas behind it draw from many approaches that most people are familiar with. But schema therapy is relatively new.