Schema Therapy with Children and Adolescents

Schema therapy, built on the fulfilment of basic human needs across key stages of the life span, has attracted high interest among practitioners and commissioners for its high success rates over relatively brief courses of treatment. This book presents the first guide to adapting schema therapy for children and young people. It describes a wide range of innovative child- and parent-specific techniques, with detailed information on how to apply them across five key stages from infancy to the age of 23. Guidance is provided on how to enact age-appropriate schema dialogues, using play to reinforce or replace imagery rescripting, and case studies bring the material to life. The book also breaks new ground in moving beyond the core relationship to ‘schema coaching’ – the education and support of key carers in recognising an individual child’s needs and the maladaptive patterns that may be caused or exacerbated by their own schemas.