Robert L Leahy

Emotional Schema Therapy:
Deepening the meaning of therapy

Professor Robert L Leahy

'On demand' workshop

£80.00

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ABSTRACT

Everyone experiences unpleasant emotions, but not everyone develops GAD, PTSD, Major Depression or a psychological disorder. Emotional Schema Therapy is an integrative, social cognitive model that proposes that problems arise as a result of evaluations, interpretations, and predictions about emotional experience that result in problematic coping strategies. For example, an adaptive interpretation of sadness and anger after a breakup would include normalizing the emotion, viewing the emotion as temporary, relating the emotion to values of intimacy, and validating one’s own experience. However, our research shows that depression, anxiety, worry, rumination, avoidance, and indecisiveness are the result of viewing one’s emotions as lasting indefinitely, out of control, abnormal, shameful, incomprehensible and unacceptable. These beliefs result in unhelpful emotion regulation strategies that perpetuate the negative beliefs about one’s emotions. In this workshop we will cover the fundamental Emotional Schema Therapy Model, techniques and conceptualisations that address the major dysfunctional emotional schemas, experiential and cognitive techniques to cope with emotional experience, and methods to enhance emotional enrichment, differentiation and emotional intelligence. This will include discussion of Emotional Perfectionism, Existential Perfectionism, “Pure Mind”, Intolerance of Ambivalence, Constructive Discomfort, Successful Imperfection, and Personal Empowerment. In addition, we will discuss how an Emotional Schema conceptualization can assist in understanding how emotional socialization, current beliefs about emotion, and current unhelpful strategies often limit the individual in developing a fully enriched life.

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All of the psychological disorders involve difficulties in tolerating or experiencing emotion. The Emotional Schema Model can assist CBT practitioners in assisting clients in enriching their emotional experience, learning from their emotions, relating their emotions to their values, and developing productive strategies for coping with emotions.

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All of the psychological disorders involve difficulties in tolerating or experiencing emotion. The Emotional Schema Model can assist CBT practitioners in assisting clients in enriching their emotional experience, learning from their emotions, relating their emotions to their values, and developing productive strategies for coping with emotions.

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Key learning objectives:

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By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Identify the client’s emotional schemas and unhelpful emotion regulation strategies.

2. Develop a case conceptualization based on the Emotional Schema Model

3. Learn how to utilize cognitive, behavioural, and experiential techniques to develop an enrichment and tolerance of emotional experience.

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References

Leahy, R.L. (2015) Emotional Schema Therapy: A Practitioner’s Guide. New York: Guilford.

Leahy, R.L. (2018) Emotional Schema Therapy: Distinctive Features. Routledge: Oxford, UK

Leahy, R. L. (2020) Don’t Believe Everything You Feel: A CBT Workbook to Identify Your Emotional Schemas and Find Freedom from Anxiety and Depression. New Harbinger: Oakland, CA.