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Schema Therapy - Has Anyone Experienced It?

GPK26


I am currently receiving therapy / counselling through the NHS and would be interested in hearing about others experience with Schema Therapy.
I have had someting like 13 or 14 sessions so far and am struggling to see how this particular therapy can help.

For those that unaware of what schema therapy is, it focuses on childhood experiences, particularly trauma and how those experiences have shaped you as a person.

Like many (maybe most) people, I had a number of challenges as a child and growing up. Yes, some really hurt, but I have always had the attitude of pick yourself up, dust yourself down and get on with it. However, I was unfortunate to experience adverse reactions to the COVID vaccine 4 1/2 years ago which have had significant impact on my life and that's when things became really challenging. I lost my job, suffer chronic fatigue, was diagnosed ASD 2 years ago, been briefly detained under Section 136 four times, to name a few things.

I dont see the point in going over traumatic events from my childhood - they are in the past and I feel that I have reconciled them, moved on, etc.
My issue is more recent and need to specifically address the impact such as severe anxiety, low confidence, etc.
I think and hope that my therapist has finally understood that this is what I want and need, and not to bring up sh1t from over 40 years ago!

I'm also concerned about the suitability of the therapy and my therapist's lack of experince with autism.
My research has indicated that Schema Therapy can be effective for autistic individuals, but it needs to be tailored in a way the is autism aware.
However, what this means to my therapist is asking enviroment questions such as is the lighting ok, are there any sensory issues.
She has triggered me quite badly a couple of times with tasks or homework that have clearly been unsuitabe for an autistic person.
She has acknowledged that she shouldn't have exposed me to those incidents and that she will be more mindful going forward.

  • I think maybe I may be having this type of therapy. My therapist calls it inner child work. We don't do it every week, it sort of just as and when. My therapist is led completely by me and what I want to talk about.

    I do find the inner child work emotionally draining and very sad, but I know I need to go back and help that small part of me, she's stuck there feeling like she's dumb, defiant and generally a bad child (everything my mum made me believe) 

    It's important to heal that small part because it keeps showing up in my life now, sort of keeping me stuck.

    I don't fully understand it, but I know it works because I am improving.

    I hope you are able to find a way through with your therapist.

    Staying hopeful for youSlight smile

  • I've had various types of talking therapies but not that. The problem I would have is that I can't remember vast swathes of my childhood and what I can recall almost seems like a second hand tale, rather than actually first hand experience.

    I have treatment resistant depression which they think is a result of having undiagnosed and supported autism, I was assessed at 53.

    Trying to find someone experienced with ND people seems almost impossible.

  • I'd never heard of it before and just looked it up, to me it seems to encapsulate a lot of different theraputic techniques, but, what if the reasons why you're seeking therapy aren't routed in childhood? Bad things happen to adults too, i.e, someone getting over a violent and controlling relationship, but who otherwise had a happy childhood I can't see how this approach would help? 

    I'm quite wary now, after having had uite a lot of therapy over the years, of people trying to dig into things that I've made peace with and retruamatising me. Some therapists see a healed scar and insist on picking at it.

    Just from reading the bumf I can see why it need adapting for ND, it seems very strict in it's approach. I think that stuff about everything starting in childhood is from Psychoanalisis, if I remember rightly Freud thought that if one could uncover, recognise and explore "the original truama" then the client would be magically healed. I think counselling and therapy have taken this so much to heart that it can be very difficult to recognise things happening now or very recently. 

    To use my earlier example, if one has just come out of an abusive relationship, then the control, the cutting off of family etc will be because of the abusive partner, they won't be exploiting something underlying, many people who've been in this situation say they never realised what was happening and that maybe the first time they were hit, they were totally shocked and didn't really believe it themselves.

    Maybe your next session should be about her approach to you, your needs as an ND person and is she and the therapy she practices right for you? 

  • I'm sorry to hear that you're struggling with your therapy and therapist.

    You and/or your she might find these resources helpful:

    NAS - Good practice guide - For professionals delivering talking therapies for autistic adults and children

    Although it doesn't cover schema therapy specifically, this book discusses various other types of therapy and counselling, together with advice on choosing the right therapist or counsellor - all from an autistic person's viewpoint:

    The Autistic Survival Guide to Therapy