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Home List of Titles The advantage of accessing early maladaptive schemas in early childhood memories and empirical evidence
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/49174
- The advantage of accessing early maladaptive schemas in early childhood memories and empirical evidence
- Theiler, Stephen; Bates, Glen W.
- This chapter begins with a summary of a treatment process that we implement in therapy sessions. Some differences between this treatment and pre-existing ones are then highlighted and the findings from two research studies that investigated some core assumptions from our clinical method are described. Our contribution to therapy and research is the integration of Bruhn’s (1985, 1990) method of analysing early childhood memories with Young’s (1999) conception of maladaptive schemas and their links with adults’ current difficulties. In practice, we incorporate ideas (e.g., from Beck, 1996; Young, Klosko, & Weishaar, 2003) that assume clients have core maladaptive schemas that are not necessarily consciously available. In our experience, once these tacit core beliefs are accessed, and acknowledged by the client, therapy and its outcomes can improve. In particular, we find that certain early maladaptive schemas (Young, 1999) that are uncovered in early childhood memories are intrinsically related to central problems that need to be addressed in therapy. Consequently, we have found that quite early in the counselling process, it is possible to discern clients’ deep-seated difficulties and then work towards addressing them. The links proposed by Young et al. (2003) between noxious early childhood memories and adult self-reported maladaptive schemas (Young, 1999) and psychopathologies were explored in two related studies using two different samples. Our findings support the relevance of themes and maladaptive schemas contained in early memories for distinguishing people with high levels of maladaptive schemas and psychological distress. The results and implications from these two research projects are outlined after the discussion of treatment.
- Publication type
- Book chapter
- Research centre
- Swinburne University of Technology
- Innovations and advances in cognitive-behaviour therapy / Danielle A. Einstein (ed.), Chapter 22, pp. 267-277
- Publication year
- Child psychology; Children; Cognitive therapy; Early childhood; Maladaptive schemas; Memory; Treatment
- Australian Academic Press
- 9781875378777, 1875378774
- Publisher URL
- Copyright © 2008 Australian Academic Press.
- Peer reviewed