Schema Therapy for Cluster-C Personality Disorders

Schema Therapy for

Cluster-C

Personality Disorders

Hannie van Genderen

Remco van der wijngaart

Community Mental Health Centre Maastricht

Overview

Dag 1

•  Casusconceptualisatie en diagnostiek bij cluster C

•  Behandeling:

•  Afhankelijke persoonlijkheidsstoornis

- Willoos Inschikkelijke

•  Obsessief-compulsieve persoonlijkheidsstoornis

- Overcontroleerder

Dag 2

•  Afhankelijke persoonlijkheidsstoornis

- Schuldinducerende oudermodus

•  Ontwijkende persoonlijkheidsstoornis

- Ontwijkende en onthechte beschermer

- Straffende oudermodus

Overview

Dag 3

•  Obsessief-compulsieve persoonlijkheidsstoornis

- Veeleisende oudermodus

•  Versterken gezonde volwassene en blije kind

•  Afhankelijke persoonlijkheidsstoornis

•  Uiten van kwaadheid en woede

Dag 4

•  Praktijktoets

•  Imaginairerescripting

•  Autonoom gedrag

DAG 1

Kennismaken

Ervaring met ST

Supervisie/ intervisie ST

Welke knelpunten bij het maken van de

casusconceptualisatie

(formulier en model)

Relatieproblemen

In gezelschap angstig

en conflicten vermijden

Werkproblemen!

Ik moet voor de

ander zorgen want

die is zwakker dan ik

(zelfopoffering)

Ik ben niet belangrijk

(emotionle

verwaarlozing)

Ik ben heel anders

dan anderen (sociaal

Isolement)

Alles heel goed

willen doen

(meedeogenloze

normen)

Overgave

Altijd eerst aan

anderen denken

Vermijding

Contact met anderen

uit de weg gaan

Overgave

Altijd hard werken

en studeren

Gevoelig en

intelligent kind

Vader vaak

overspannen

Moeder zorgt

Voor vader

en broertje

Vader

veeleisend

Gezinsregel: over

gevoelens en problemen

wordt niet gepraatl

Moeder

teruggetrokken

en stil

General Conditions for

Therapy

•  Check motivation for therapy, so sometimes

motivational interviewing first

•  Reason for treatment can be chronic depression,

anxiety or burnout

•  Explain therapy model:

- talking about the past is necessary

- changing means stop avoiding

•  Pay attention to autistiform disorders

•  Addiction that needs detox first

General Conditions for

Therapy

•  If patiënt is not motivated to work on

PD: repeat therapy for axis I

•  Explain that not working on a deeper

level can lead to chronic complaints

Research

Effect Schema Therapy compared with

treatment as usual:

•  Less drop out

•  More recovery

•  Better social functioning (>GAF)

•  Less depression

•  Bamelis, L.L. M., Evers, M.A.A., Spinhoven, P. & Arntz, A. (2014). Results of a

multicentered randomized controlled trial on the clinical effectiveness of schema

therapy for personality disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry,

“difficult”

parents

“difficult”

temperament

Traumas

Dysfunctional

Schemas

Dysfunctional

Coping stratgies

Complaints

Basic core needs

•  Secure attachments to others (safety,

stability, nurturance and acceptance)

•  Autonomy, competence and sense of

identity

•  Freedom to express needs and emotions

•  Spontaneity and play

•  Realistic limits and self-control

Concept of a Schema Mode:

•  Schema modes are moment-to-

moment emotional-cognitive states with

specific coping responses

•  Similar, but more extreme to what we

all experience

•  Schema modes are triggered by life

situations that we are sensitive to

•  An individual may shift from one

schema mode into another (flipping)

Schema Modes

•  Child modes

•  Dysfunctional Coping modes

(Surrender, avoid, overcompensate)

•  Dysfunctional Parent modes

•  Healthy Adult mode

Unravelling the connection between

schemas, coping styles, and

modes:

empirical findings

Marleen Rijkeboer

Jill Lobbestael

Why did Jill and Marleen start

this project?

•  Schism in schema therapy:

the schema model vs. the mode model

•  Jill Lobbestael performed research into

modes. Marleen into schemas

•  Both interested in:

To what extent are these two models

related?

What are the connections between the

constructs in both models?

Connecting the constructs

Adaptation of the Schema Polarity Model

by Elliott & Lassen (1997)

schema

surrender

overcompensation

avoidance

Connecting the constructs

Defectiveness/Shame

vulnerable child:

“I am unloveable”

self-aggrandizer:

“I am very special”

detached

protector

Healthy Adult “I am OK”

Connecting the constructs

Emotional Deprivation

vulnerable child:

“No-one will meet my

needs”

angry child:

“I want my needs to be

met right now”

detached

protector

healthy adult “I am respected”

The integrated model

A mediation model in which coping styles

mediate the relationship between

schemas and modes

coping style

schema schema mode

The integrated model:

another way of categorizing

modes

–  Trying to connect the schema model and mode model

into a more parsimonious model

•  Basically the function of moment-to-

moment states is assessed by taking

into account:

–  What are the origins: the underlying theme/schema?

–  What is the dominant coping style?

–  We were a bit confused by the term ‘coping mode’. Isn’t

this a pleonasm? Don’t modes always involve coping?

Results

surrender

schema vulnerable child

Schemas: emotional deprivation, abandonment, mistrust,

social isolation, defectiveness, failure, vulnerability,

negativity/pessimism, functional dependence, & approval

seeking

All indirect effects were significant

Results

avoidance

schemas detached protector

Schemas: emotional deprivation, abandonment, mistrust,

social isolation, defectiveness, failure, vulnerability,

negativity/pessimism, functional dependence, emotional

inhibition & approval seeking

All indirect effects were significant

Results

overcompensation / surrender

schema angry child

Schemas: emotional deprivation, abandonment, mistrust,

social isolation, defectiveness, failure, vulnerability,

negativity/pessimism, functional dependence, emotional

inhibition & approval seeking (overcompensation)

Schemas: insufficient self-control & entitlement (surrender)

All indirect effects were significant

Results

surrender

schema punitive parent

Schemas: defectiveness, failure, punitiveness, & unrelenting

standards

All indirect effects were significant

Results

surrender/avoidance

schema compliant surrender

Schemas: approval seeking, self-sacrifice & enmeshment

(surrender)

Schemas: abandonment (avoidance)

All indirect effects were significant

Results

overcompensation / surrender

schema self-aggrandizer

Schemas: defectiveness, failure, & social isolation

(overcompensation)

Schema: entitlement (surrender)

All indirect effects were significant

Results

overcompensation

schema bully & attack

Schema: mistrust/abuse

the indirect effect was significant

Conclusion & Discussion

•  Straight forward and clear relationships

between schemas, coping styles, and schema

modi were found

•  Findings were cross-validated, hence results

are robust

•  The schema model and the schema mode

model are closely related

•  Schism of both models seems unwarranted

Emotion theory Lang

Three basic levels on which emotional

experiences are represented in memory:

•  Sensory stimuli

•  Meaning

•  Bodily response

Therefore it’s important to use diverse

diagnostic methods!

Schema Therapy

•  Integrative Therapy based on the

Schema Model

•  Three ways of changing schemas:

–  Doing - Behavioural Techniques

–  Feeling - Experiential Techniques

–  Thinking - Cognitive Techniques

•  Four foci:

–  Therapeutic Relationship

–  Experiences outside therapy

–  Memories from childhood

–  Future

Difference between

cluster C and B

Cluster C

•  Too much protection

•  Emotional abuse

•  Too many rules

•  Deficits in parents more

“subtle”

•  Punitive parent more

restrictive and guilt

inducing

•  More loyalty towards

parents

•  Patient quiet & obedient

•  Parentification

•  Not enough anger

Cluster B

•  Insufficient protection

•  Sexual or violent abuse

•  Lack of rules

•  Deficits in parents

more “obvious”

•  Punitive parent more

abusive

•  Loyalty towards

parents sometimes

easier to break through

•  P. is not so cooperative

•  Takes no responsibility

•  Too much anger

Roleplay

about common problems

during case

conceptualisation

Protocol cluster C

•  40 sessions in year 1

–  Sessions 1-6: introduction, case

conceptualization

–  Sessions 7-25: focus on childhood

–  Sessions 26-40: focus on present &

behavioural change

•  10 booster sessions in year 2

(+ monthly)

Protocol Session1-6

First phase of treatment

•  If PD treatment is indicated and patient

agrees with Schema Therapy:

•  Intake Schema Therapy, assessment of:

–  Schemas, coping styles, and modes

(Discuss SMI & YSQ & Scid's)

–  Origins in childhood (Life history & YPI)

–  Unmet basis emotional needs

Imagery with father (alone)

Imagery with mother (alone)

–  Current problems

First phase of treatment

•  Link between origins, schemas, coping and

modes, and current problems

•  Together with the patient: formulation of the

case conceptualization

•  Explain aim and methods of the treatment

(also reading books)

•  Mutual agreement and clarity on

appointments and rules

•  Building a safe therapy relationship

Mode models Cluster C

•  Avoidant PD

•  Dependent PD

•  Obsessive-Compulsive PD

AVOIDANT

& DETACHED

PROTECTOR

(& COMPLIANT

SURRENDER)

LONELY/INFERIOR

CHILD

ABANDONED/ABUSED

CHILD

PUNITIVE

PARENT

HEALTHY

ADULT

Avoidant PD

HAPPY

CHILD

Avoidant PD

•  P. worries that he is socially inept and inferior: low

self-esteem

•  P. fears that he has not the capacity to deal with

challenging situations

•  Fear of novelty and emotions

•  Avoids:

–  Feelings (negative AND positive, especially anger)

–  Experiencing bodily sensations (f.e. sexual arousal, eating

strong flavored and spicy food)

–  Engaging in potentially risky activities

–  Social contacts and roles

–  Intimacy

–  Making choices

–  Having opinions and expressing them

•  Emotionally abused or abandoned in childhood

Avoidant PD

•  Inept and inferior: low self-esteem

•  Emotionally abused or abandoned in childhood

•  NEEDS:

- nurturance and acceptance

- Freedom to express needs and emotions

COMPLIANT

SURRENDER

DEPENDENT

CHILD

ABANDONED/ABUSED

CHILD

PUNITIVE

PARENT

(punishes

Autonomy,

Guilt inducing)

HEALTHY

ADULT

Dependent PD

HAPPY

CHILD

Dependent PD

FUNCTIONAL DEPENDENCY

EMOTIONAL DEPENDENCY

FUNCTIONAL DEPENDENCY

•  Patient worries about his capacity to lead an adult life

•  Cannot make minor and major decisions in a practical

sense

•  Believes he has to rely on a strong person to help him

•  Lack of self-confidence

•  Lack of autonomy

•  Authoritarian parenting

Dependent PD

EMOTIONAL DEPENDENCY

•  Desperately needs somebody for emotional support

•  When alone patient feels lonely and empty

•  Clings to family members and friends

•  Constant fear of abandonment

•  Threat of abandonment in youth or parent was

dependent on the child

Dependent PD

•  Believes he has to rely on a strong person to help him

•  Lack of self-confidence

•  Lack of autonomy

•  Authoritarian parenting

•  Constant fear of abandonment

NEEDS:

•  Secure attachments to others (safety, stability,

nurturance and acceptance)

•  Autonomy, competence and sense of identity

•  Freedom to express needs and emotions

PERFECTIONISTIC

OVERCONTROLER

(denied/

not accessible)

VULNERABLE

CHILD

DEMANDING

PARENT

HEALTHY

ADULT

SELF-

AGGRANDIZER

Obs-Comp PD

HAPPY

CHILD

Obsessive-Compulsive PD

•  Patient has an excessive and compulsive

devotion to productivity at the expense of

other areas of life

•  Standards are usually extremely high

•  Emotions are not seen as valuable

•  Views himself as superior to others in terms

of conscientiousness, responsibility and moral

norms

•  Emotional abuse in childhood

•  Cold and strict parenting

Obsessive-Compulsive PD

•  Standards are usually extremely high

•  Emotions are not seen as valuable

•  Emotional abuse in childhood

•  Cold and strict parenting

•  NEEDS:

•  Secure attachments to others ( nurturance and

acceptance)

•  Freedom to express needs and emotions

•  Spontaneity and play

Idiosyncratic schema-mode

model

•  Develop together with patient idiosyncratic

mode model

•  Patient may read Young & Klosko’s self-

help book

•  Adapt names of the modes

E.g., ‘the wall’, “your punishing side”

•  Draw on white board

•  Relate to historical roots

•  Must explain present problems

Example: Dependent & OC PD

patient

Compliant Surrender

Dependent Child

PUNITIVE & DEMANDING

PARENT MODE

Perfectionistic

Overcontroller

Healthy

Adult

Happy

Child

Recognizing Schema Modes

•  Feeling tone – each mode has its own

characteristic affect

•  Life history

•  Therapeutic relationship

•  Imagery

•  Questionnaires: Schema Mode Inventory

Collecting information

•  Interview (life history and current

complaints)

•  Questionnaires

•  Imagery

•  Downward-arrow

Avoidance & modes

•  Detached protector

–  Avoids feeling & connection (passive) incl. somatization

•  Avoidant protector

–  Situational avoidance

•  Compliant surrender

–  Avoids autonomy

•  Detached self soother

–  Active substance abuse & activities to avoid (active,

sensation seeking)

Recognizing different modes

at cluster C Personality

Disorder

Protocol Sessions 7-25

Second phase of treatment

•  Start with asking about: Audiotape and last

week

•  Identification of schemas and coping styles in

the here and now, by recognizing modes

which are present during the sessions

•  Changing schemas and coping styles by

working with the modes through experiential,

cognitive, and behavioural techniques

•  Processing of traumas

Protocol Sessions 7-25

•  Focus on vulnerable child mode

- Sometimes directly

- Sometimes you need to address

coping mode or punitive parent

mode first

•  Fight Punitive/Demanding Parent Mode

•  Bypass the protector: Repeat explanation

why it will not help now

•  At least once every 2 sessions

imagery rescripting

Treatment:

Content of a session

•  Ask how last week went

•  Examine which mode is present (don’ task)

•  Choose a technique to change this mode

•  Connect to the vulnerable child

•  Support, and comfort the child

•  Educate about needs

•  Conclusions aimed at changing the schemas

and modes

•  Enhance the Healthy Adult

Planning session in the first phase of therapy

Ask how last week went

(Don’t go into too much detail)

Which mode is present?

(don’t ask but name it.)

20-

Vulnerable Child

Conclusions aimed at changing the schemas

and modes. Psycho education

± 15

COMPLIANT

SURRENDER

DEPENDENT

CHILD

ABANDONED/ABUSED

CHILD

PUNITIVE

PARENT

(punishes

Autonomy,

Guilt inducing)

HEALTHY

ADULT

Dependent PD

HAPPY

CHILD

Treatment of Dependent PD

•  Correct authoritarian parenting

•  Don t allow P to submit to you and make you

an authority (mind your own schema s)

•  Push to express own opinions and emotions

•  Push autonomy

•  Stimulate selfconfidence

•  Teach how to have disagreements

•  Note: this reparenting is a bit different than

with many other PDs (don t promote

dependence, but independence)

Dependent PD

•  Recognizing modes

•  Make contact with the vulnerable child

VULNERABLE CHILD

•  Empathize with and protect the

Vulnerable Child

•  Process loneliness, abuse and

abandonment

•  Offer safe attachment in treatment

•  Help Vulnerable Child to receive love

and care

DEPENDENT CHILD

•  Note: this reparenting is a bit different

than with many other PDs

•  Push to express own opinions and

emotions

•  Push autonomy

•  Stimulate almost any initiative to do new

things

•  Set limits to not coming to therapy or

not trying to do new things

MAKING CONTACT WITH

VULNERABLE/DEPENDENT CHILD

•  Ask direct contact with the VC/DC

•  Two chair technique

•  Imagery

•  Empathic confrontation

BYPASSING

THE COPING MODE

•  Label the Coping Mode

(protector or overcompensator)

•  Explain development in childhood &

empathize with its adaptive value

•  Link to trigger events

Bypassing the Coping Mode

•  Review pros and cons in the present

(= cognitive technique)

•  Empathic confrontation

•  Motivate & push for behavioral change

•  Two-or-more-chair technique

•  Historical role play

•  Imagery rescripting

BYPASSING THE COMPLIANT

SURRENDER

(willoos inschikkelijke)

Exercise”

•  Review pros and cons of compliant

surrender in the present

•  Motivate patient to reduce this

protection

•  Short term versus long term

(relationship, job, family, children)

PERFECTIONISTIC

OVERCONTROLER

(denied/

not accessible)

VULNERABLE

CHILD

DEMANDING

PARENT

HEALTHY

ADULT

SELF-

AGGRANDIZER

Obs-Comp PD

HAPPY

CHILD

Obsessive-Compulsive PD

•  Get rid of demanding parent mode

•  Ask P to reduce Perfectionistic

Overcontroller or Self Aggrandizer:

review pro’s and con’s

•  Empathic confrontation

•  Explain & push for importance of

emotions, intimacy and social contacts

•  Let P experiment with imperfection

BYPASSING

THE COPING MODE

Review pros and cons of perfectionistic

overcontroller present & motivate patient to

reduce this protection

Empathic confrontation

•  Expressing understanding about the

patient’s schemas and schema-driven

behaviour while simultaneously confronting

the need for change

•  Confront in a friendly, not punitive, way

•  Confront in a personal way

•  Make connections between behaviour,

schemas and modes and childhood

experiences

•  Pay attention to the emotions that might be

triggered

Empathic confrontation: example

overcontroller

•  This happens quite often that you interrupt me, to tell me

that I don’t exactly understand you.

•  I really understand that you feel that it is necessary that

every fact and every detail is exactly right, and that you

want to be absolutely sure that everything I say is

correct. I understand that your controlling side then gets

active, and wants to take control over our conversation.

•  Remember, you developed this side because your father

was extremely critical to you when you made a mistake

or forgot to report every detail.

•  Although I understand that this side is afraid that if it

does not control whether what I am thinking and saying

is correct, I really want to ask you to reduce this side and

let me speak, even when not every detail is correct.

•  The first reason for this is that I find these

interruptions, to be honost, quite annoying. Your

perfectionistic overcontroller distracts me from what I

am trying to say.

•  The second reason is that I feel that letting the

overcontroller control you and me so much is that it

prevents us to have real contact. I feel that it is much

more important to attend to the emotional sides of

your problems, and not to whether every factual detail

is 100% correct. By letting the overcontroller rule our

sessions, I cannot contact little John and address his

needs. And when I cannot do that, the loneliness and

the emotional needs of this side of you cannot be

addressed, and if they cannot be addressed you will

not recover from your problems.

•  So that is why I want you to try to stop letting the

overcontroller rule your behaviour, and give both

room to me and to the mode of little John, because

little John and I also have the right to take part in the

conversation.

Obsessive-Compulsive PD

Excersize:

Empathic confrontation of the

overcontroller

DAG 2

Punitive parent:

Guilt inducing parent

•  Parent(s) are excessively dependent on

the child

•  Separation means danger

•  Parent(s) punish autonomy

•  FUNCTIONAL DEPENDENCY

•  EMOTIONAL DEPENDENCY

COMPLIANT

SURRENDER

DEPENDENT

CHILD

ABANDONED/ABUSED

CHILD

PUNITIVE

PARENT

(punishes

Autonomy,

Guilt inducing)

HEALTHY

ADULT

Dependent PD

HAPPY

CHILD

FIGHTING THE GUILT INDUCING

PARENT (PUNITIVE OR DEMANDING)

•  Fight the GP, PP or DP:

•  Ttwo chair technique therapist combats GP, PP

or DP or dialogue between HA and GP,

•  Educate about universal needs and feelings

•  Imagery exercise

•  Use CBT to develop alternative perspectives on

needs, feelings and normal life problems, like

making a mistake

•  Replacement of strict rigid rules by more

adaptive moral standards

Experiential Techniques

•  Imagery Rescripting

•  Two-or-more-chair Technique

•  Role Play

Imagery Rescripting: rationale

•  Change the meaning of the original

experiences that contributed to the

development of schemas and modes

•  Imagery has stronger emotional and

memory effects than verbal processing

Pathways to childhood

memory

Safe

Place

Present

Problem

Childhood

memory

Instruction Instruction

Instruction

Spontaneous Spontaneous

Imagery Rescripting: rationale

•  Identify those schemas that are relevant

for the mode of your patient

•  Experience schemas on affective level

•  Help patients link on an emotional level

the origins of their schemas in childhood

and adolescence with problems in their

current lives

Important

•  Imagery is not the same as exposure

•  Stop the image at the right moment

•  Imagery and rescripting for traumatic

experiences: not in the beginning of the

therapy

Dependent PD

Excersize:

Imagery rescripting

Guilt inducing parent

Optimale verwerking van correctieve emotionele ervaringen

Window of Tolerance

(Siegel, 1999; Ogden, 2006)

Too much emotion

(hyperarousal)

Overcompensation

Emotionally flooded,

fearfull , angry,

flashbacks, nightmares,

High risk behaviour

Efforts to reduce : abuse of

alcohol and drugs,

automutilation, suïcide attempt

Surrender= freeze

Terrified, frozen, mute

dissociatie.

High arousal coupled

with physical immobility

Optimal arousal Encompassing both high emotion and states of

calm and relaxation in which emotions can be

tolrated and information can be integrated

Little emotion

(hypoarousal)

Flat affect, numb, empty, collapsed

Cognitively dissociated , inabbility to think

Helpless and hopeless

Efforts to reduce : abuse of alcohol and drugs, automutilation,

suïcide attempt

Window of Tolerance

•  Influenced by intelligence, working memory capacity,

temperament, stressors, etc.

•  Patients can only integrate corrective emotional

experiences when they are within their Window of

Tolerance

•  Dysfunctional behaviours are (dysfunctional) attempts

to regulate distress by a person striving to be within

the Window of Tolerance

•  Need for process assessment

•  Need for a more functional affect regulation

Implications for ST

•  Constant assessment of modes

•  Constant assessment of needs

•  Be aware of re-traumatization: don’t let

patients relive traumatic moments

•  Phase experiential exercises

•  Work with soothing / bonding / transitional

objects

•  Be validating

•  Teach patients functional ways of coping

•  Have fun

How?

Through the therapeutic

relationship

Activation of schemas of the

therapist

(Counter transference)

Schema activation

1.  Avoidant behaviour (missing sessions/

arriving too late, doesn’t do homework)

2.  Crisis (relapse in depression/ somatic

complaints)

3.  Dependent behaviour towards therapist

4.  Compliant surrender towards therapist

DIFFICULT

COMBINATIONS OF

SCHEMAS OR MODES!

COMPLEMENTARITY

Stagnation

Alienation

Abuse

SIMILARITY OF SCHEMAS

Stagnation through

identification

Alienation

Conflict

How to deal with schema

activation?

Take care:

Is it caused by the behaviour of the

Patient?

Or is it activation of your own schema?

In case of problems with own schemas:

Seek help (supervision)

AVOIDANT

& DETACHED

PROTECTOR

(& COMPLIANT

SURRENDER)

LONELY/INFERIOR

CHILD

ABANDONED/ABUSED

CHILD

PUNITIVE

PARENT

HEALTHY

ADULT

Avoidant PD

HAPPY

CHILD

Avoidant PD

•  Inept and inferior: low self-esteem

•  Emotionally abused or abandoned in

childhood

•  NEEDS:

- Nurturance and acceptance

- Freedom to express needs and

emotions

Avoidant PD

Recognize the modes of the

Avoidant PD

Empathic confrontation

•  Expressing understanding about the

patient’s schemas and schema-driven

behaviour while simultaneously

confronting the need for change

•  Confront in a friendly, not punitive, way

•  Confront in a personal way

•  Make connections between behaviour,

schema’s and modes and childhood

experiences

•  Pay attention to the emotions that might be

triggered

Empathic confrontation:

example Avoidance

•  So you have reported ill again when your boss provoked you.

•  I really understand that you feel badly treated and that you are

angry at your boss, but that your detached protector side thinks

that it is not wise to express your anger because this was severely

punished when you was a child.

•  Although I understand that you are afraid that your boss will

punish you, when you are assertive, just like your father did, I still

want you to discuss the whole thing with your boss and to express

your opinion.

•  Because I think this is a healthier way of dealing with these

problems than reporting ill.

•  And because I think that you have the fundamental right, just like

everybody else, to express your opinion; it is not okay what you

have been taught when you were a child.

•  (You may refer to the fundamental human rights (UN))

Avoidant PD

AVOIDANT & DETACHED PROTECTOR:

•  Push to less avoidance of

–  Feeling

–  Social contacts and roles

–  Intimacy

–  Making choices

–  Having opinions and expressing them

What are the needs of the child?

Two chair technique

Two-chair technique

with the avoidant protector

•  State that the avoidant mode is active

•  Put this mode in a separate chair and

let this mode express its opinion

•  Ask the patient to go back to original

chair

•  The Healthy Adult (or the Therapist)

addresses the Dysfunctional Mode

•  Express needs of the patient

105

Multiple-chair Technique

When the Dysfunctional Coping Mode and

the Punitive Parent alternate quickly

•  Give each Mode a chair

•  Discuss with or fight against each mode

•  Focus on the reaction of the Child Mode

•  Help Child or Healthy Adult to express

needs!

106

Avoidant PD

Excersize:

Two chair technique

AVOIDANT & DETACHED

PROTECTOR:

Pathways to childhood

memory

Safe

Place

Present

Problem

Childhood

memory

Instruction Instruction

Instruction

Spontaneous Spontaneous

Avoidant PD

Excersize:

Imagery rescripting

PUNITIVE PARENT MODE

DAG 3

PERFECTIONISTIC

OVERCONTROLER

(denied/

not accessible)

VULNERABLE

CHILD

DEMANDING

PARENT

HEALTHY

ADULT

SELF-

AGGRANDIZER

Obs-Comp PD

HAPPY

CHILD

Obsessive-compulsive PD

Exercise:

Imagery rescripting

Demanding parent

TREATMENT OBJECTIVES:

healthy adult mode

•  Help patient to strengthen the

Healthy Adult Mode

•  Therapist / therapeutic

relationship is model

Healthy Choices

•  Aim = to improve mental health

•  Motivation: explain that choices so far

were based on dysfunctional modes

(name them)

•  Help patient to reflect on what (s)he really

wants

•  Support with making healthy choices and

the fears that they raise

•  Ask next session how it went!

Strenghtening The Healthy Adult

•  Behavioural techniques

•  Two chair technique

•  Imagery rescripting

•  Teach healthy attitudes

•  Push towards healthy choices:

–  Education / work

–  Hobbies

–  Friends

–  Partner:

Breaking through dysfunctional partner choices;

Learning to make a healthy partner choice

Empathic confrontation to

push for behavioural change

•  Aim = motivate & push for behavioural

change

•  Step 1: Empathise with the function of the

original dysfunctional behaviour & link with

schema mode

•  Step 2: Nevertheless, ask for behavioural

change

•  Step 3: Motivate this

Happy Child

Happy, Spontaneous Joyful

•  Make fun during sessions

•  Stimulate play outside sessions

Happy Child

Demonstration:

Pushing for spontaneity

COMPLIANT

SURRENDER

DEPENDENT

CHILD

ABANDONED/ABUSED

CHILD

PUNITIVE

PARENT

(punishes

Autonomy,

Guilt inducing)

HEALTHY

ADULT

Dependent PD

HAPPY

CHILD

Experiential Techniques

•  Two-or-more-chair Technique

•  Historical role Play

•  Imagery Rescripting

Historical Role Play

•  Find relevant events in the past

•  P. gets more insight in her own part in

the interaction

•  P. gets more insight in the motivation her

parents could have had

•  Changing interpretation of the situation

•  Therapist can give feedback after

playing the child role

•  Try out new behaviour from a healthy

perspective

121

Aim is NOT

•  That patient feels guilty of having done it wrong

- But patient gets new insight (in own part, in possible

perspective of the parents)

- and change of the interpretation of the original situation

•  Another perspective, does not “excuse” the parents

for not meeting the needs of the child

•  Behavioral rehearsal

- But changes in emotions and cognitions

•  Immediate change in present behavior

- Don’t expect that!

•  In sum: aim is change on schema level

Historical Role Play: Preparation

Discuss a behavioral pattern that gets

stuck every time

P. thinks of a relevant event in the past

which is similar to patterns in the present

123

Historical role play

P. = Child

T. = the other person

Original situation

Conclusion about myself:

Assumed perspective of the other person:

P.= the other person

T.= Child

Original situation: role switching

P. Experiences the perspective of the other

Alternative conclusion about myself:

Alternative assumed perspective of the other person:

P. = Child

T. = the other person

P. Now tries out a new behavior

Alternative conclusion about myself:

Alternative assumed perspective of the other person:

Original conclusion about myself:

Implications for the future:

Avoidant PD

Exercise:

Historical role play

Punitive parent and autonomy

Protocol sessions 26-40

•  Start asking about:

–  Audiotape & last week; focus more on

behavioural change

•  Detect which mode is (was) active

•  Focus more on present life

–  How to address current problems

–  Push towards behavioural change

–  Support this with schema-mode

techniques and flashcards

Protocol sessions 26-40

•  Also focus on therapeutic relationship

–  Discuss dysfunctional schema mode

in the relationship

–  Help to achieve healthy view

–  Push healthy behaviour in the

therapeutic relationship

Protocol sessions 41-50

(booster sessions)

•  Focus on last month

Especially behavioural changes

•  Detect what modes are / were active

•  Praise healthy attitudes and behaviours

•  View problems as challenges

Don’t criticize or catastrophize ‘relapse

Formulate problems as choices

•  Educate:

old modes don’t disappear completely, but will

have less influence if you practice healthy ways

•  Motivate to healthy choices and autonomy

Empathic confrontation to

push for behavioural change

Aim = motivate & push for behavioural

change

•  Step 1: empathise with the function of the

original dysfunctional behaviour & link

with schema mode

•  Step 2: nevertheless, ask for behavioural

change

•  Step 3: motivate this

Behavioural change

•  Aim = behavioural change

•  Motivation: explain that new behaviour is

necessary to come to a final change

•  Rehearse in role plays or using imagery;

give (informal) model and ask patient to try

out

•  Ask next session how it went!

Learning to express anger

•  Being afraid of feeling and expressing

irritation and anger is important in

Cluster-C

•  Patients need to learn that it is normal

and healthy to express anger and be

assertive

Learning to express anger

•  Practice by:

–  Role plays

–  Imagery exercises

–  Writing assignments (e.g. write letter

expressing anger; don t send)

–  Expressing anger towards T.

–  Drama Therapy

–  Playful exercizes like tug-of-war

Cluster C PD

Exercise:

Expressing Anger

DAG 4

Imagery Rescripting: rationale

•  Identify those schemas that are relevant

for the mode of your patient

•  Experience schemas on affective level

•  Help patients link on an emotional level

the origins of their schemas in childhood

and adolescence with problems in their

current lives

Imagery Rescripting:

Patient rescripts

1.  Original situation (P. is Child)

2.  P. is Healthy Adult who helps the Child

3.  P. is Child again: Now he experiences

the support of his own Healthy Adult

T. Paraphrases what H. A. of P. does.

Cluster C PD

Exercise:

Imagery rescripting

Patient rescripts

Autonomy

•  Being afraid of feeling and expressing

irritation and anger is important in

Cluster-C

•  Patients need to learn that it is normal

and healthy to express anger and be

assertive

Avoidant PD

Exercise:

Pushing for more autonomy

Extra Slides

Coping vragenlijst

Overcompensa,e-

Ik kan erg kritisch zijn over wat anderen

doen of laten.

Ik fantaseer over beroemd, rijk, belangrijk of

succesvol te zijn.

Wanneer ik kritiek krijg, schiet ik meteen in

de verdediging..

Ik heb de neiging anderen te overheersen en

te controleren.

Coping vragenlijst

Overgave--

Bij problemen of moeilijkheden denk ik: “Zie je

wel, dit overkomt mij weer”.

Als er moeilijkheden zijn, ben ik geneigd om bij

de pakken neer te gaan zitten.

Als anderen mij slecht behandelen, laat ik dat

gebeuren.

Ik laat mijn leven door anderen bepalen.

Coping vragenlijst

Vermijding-

Ik ga liever geen intieme vriendschappen of

relaties aan.

Ik ga confrontaties liefst uit de weg.

Het is beter om je gevoel zoveel mogelijk uit te

schakelen

Ik houd het graag oppervlakkig.