I've been in Schema therapy for 1 year + now and I really like how it blends cognitive therapy (Jeffery Young was initially trained in CBT) with elements of exploring the past (linking your present issues to your Early Maladaptive Schemas) and gestalt techniques (Empty Chairs etc).

Schema therapy supposedly requires a therapist who "genuinely cares" for the client, who is willing to be "more flexible" boundaries wise than "most modalities". A "willingness to touch" is supposedly necessary, although touch might not be used (eg with clients who have committed offenses) as the unwillingness to touch might signal an "Emotional Inhibition" schema in the therapist (Source - Schema Therapy - A Practitioner's Guide).

Hence, warmth, flexibility (Source - the above book and a scale assessing therapists) is supposedly required as these are the requirements for "Limited reparenting".

I feel that the framework is easy to understand and quite non-shaming. The concept of "limited reparenting" is considered to be the "core" of the therapy something I quite like. I do have many moments of telling my T to "stop all this limited reparenting BS!!!" when I feel pain over the contrast between my upbringing and therapy.

While I do not have borderline personality disorder, the view is "needy, not greedy" and the therapist is encouraged to view a client who is being hostile as a vulnerable child lashing out. I do think some clients might find it infantilizing, but I feel it is much more non-pathologising than viewing someone as "manipulative".

I'm a fan, haha. One thing about it makes me incredibly sad though...because the therapist is basically trying to meet "some" of the client's emotional needs within the boundaries of the therapeutic relationship... It sure brings out the contrast with a painful upbringing.

Some good books:

• Schema Therapy - A Practitioner's Guide
• Schema Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder
• The Schema Therapy Clinician's Guide

I've asked my psychologist this question "WHY?" repeatedly.

She says that as she grows to know each client, caring naturally develops.

She says that it's because she can see the good in me - in each client before her.

She says she believes schema therapy won't work without genuine caring on her part as for each of her clients as the unique persons they are.

I still want to know WHY she cares about me. I used to say she just cared for me as "Just a job" but she has always asked me to Feel her care, that she believes her job is not "just a job", that she believes strongly in a dynamic, healing, "genuine" relationship between both members of the dyad.

I'm not fully convinced but after more then a year of seeing her once every two weeks and testing her and being met with compassion and acceptance and warmth and care, I believe she does care for me as a client.

WHY she cares for a worthless thing like me though? I'm still asking. She says I'm not the awful creature I believe myself to be.