Looking to hear peoples experiences with Schema Therapy and therapy in general?

[Taila]

Hello everyone,

I'm interested to know people's experiences with Schema Therapy and therapy in general.

I've had ongoing anxiety and self-esteem issues for 5-6 years now.

I had my first therapy session this week and my therapist recommended Schema Therapy.

I trust my therapist and will do what she feels is best for me, I'm just concerned how long Schema Therapy will take and what it will involve.

From what I've read, Schema Therapy is more intensive and long term therapy; taking up to two years. I'm committed to doing it but apprehensive about it taking a long time and it being a rocky road before I start to feel better.

Has anyone tried Schema Therapy and can share their experiences with it? Did it take a long time before you started to feel like it was helping you? Was the therapy difficult and confronting and affected your day to day?

I'm a little bit anxious about it and what it means for me and would love to hear other peoples experiences.

I appreciate everyone is different and experiences vary, and I will share all my concerns with my therapist, but it would help me a lot to hear from others who went through it.

Thank you.

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi Taila,

Thank you for your post!

My therapist does schema therapy, but she does an integrated approach which means she uses lots of different therapy techniques so not just the one.

I totally get the need to google and search but no therapy has to be for a long time to start helping and feeling better. I actually noticed that I was feeling better even after my first few appointments, just having someone to talk to and having some more insight gave me lots of hope. So while I have personally been in therapy for a long time please know that you don't have to have a number of sessions to start to notice changes or differences in your mood.

For me, schema therapy wasn't too difficult but it was a little tiring sometimes- there's a lot of inner work and reflecting, especially with what it was like growing up.

I hope this helps

rt

[Zelly]

I started Schema therapy for a short time to get to the bottom of why I was choosing the partners I did. It only lasted 2 months as I already had a great deal of insight for the reasons. I didn’t find it much different to to a phsychiatrist on a long term basis. I actually ended up feeling like she just wanted my money once we got to a certain point.
I would recommend a Schema Therapy course. I an the outpatient group Depression course it was fantastic. They have a Schema Therapy one too.