Schema therapy is an innovative, integrative therapy developed by Young and colleagues (Young, 1990, 1999) that significantly expands on traditional cognitive-behavioral treatments and concepts. The therapy blends elements from cognitive-behavioral, attachment, Gestalt, object relations, constructivist, and psychoanalytic schools into a rich, unifying conceptual and treatment model.
Schema therapy provides a new system of psychotherapy that is especially well suited to patients with entrenched, chronic psychological disorders who have heretofore been considered difficult to treat. In our clinical experience, patients with full-blown personality disorders, as well as those with significant characterological issues that underlie their Axis I disorders, typically respond extremely well to schema-focused treatment (sometimes in combination with other treatment approaches).