Schema Therapy with Couples A Practitioner's Guide to Healing Relationships

• Shows how the distinctive features of ST make it ideal for addressing the cognitive and emotion-focused problems typical in couple relationships
• Presents and integrates a series of innovative tools and interventions such as Schema Therapy with Needs versus Wants, Mode Cycle Clash Cards, limited re-parenting visualization, and chair work
• Authored by an international team of experts in couples therapy and Schema Therapy

Chiara Simeone-DiFrancesco founded Wisconsin Family Growth & Reconciliation Center LLC, working with couples for 25 years in private practice. Chiara now directs the Marriage & Family Schema Therapy Institute, a division of the non-profit Healing International, Inc. she co-founded in 1986. A former Lieutenant in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, she is founder and chair of the ISST Subcommittee & Workgroup of Marital and Couples Schema Therapy.

Eckhard Roediger is a Neurologist, Psychiatrist, and Psychotherapist based in Frankfurt, Germany. He is a former chief physician of the Salus Klinik Hospital, and is currently Director of the Frankfurt Schema Therapy Institute and President of the ISST. He is the author of several German language books on Schema Therapy.  

Bruce A. Stevens (PhD Boston University, 1987) holds the Wicking Chair of Ageing and Practical Theology at Charles Sturt University and is the director of the Centre of Ageing and Pastoral Studies. He was previously Associate Professor in clinical psychology at the University of Canberra where he convened the program with over 60 graduate students from 2009-2014. He is an endorsed Clinical and Forensic Psychologist with a part-time private practice at Canberra Clinical and Forensic Psychology, a practice he founded in the early 1990’s. He has been chair of the Canberra section of the Clinical College of the Australian Psychological Society. He gives many professional workshops on couple therapy throughout Australia. He has is a trainer in Schema Therapy with both individual and couple accreditation with the ISST. 

About the Authors 3

Preface 4

Acknowledgments 6

Introduction 7

Chapter 1 What Schema Therapy Offers 9

Chapter 2 The Initial Contract and First Interview 19

Chapter 3 Relationship Assessments 32

Chapter 4 Understanding the Origins of Relational Styles 45

Chapter 5 Foundations for Evidence-Based Practice in Couple Therapy 55

Chapter 6 Schemas and Modes 64

Chapter 7 Approaching Schema Therapy for Couples 85

Chapter 8 Mode Mapping and Mode Cycle Clash-cards 95

Chapter 9 Interventions in Couple Treatment 117

Chapter 10 Common Problems in Couple Therapy, including Affairs, Forgiveness, and Violence 145

Chapter 11 Differentiating Needs from Wants, and the Challenge of Integration 181

Chapter 12 Building Friendship, Building the Healthy Adult 198

Appendix: Self-care for the Couple Therapist 210

References 216

Abbreviations 225

Index of Therapy Tools and Interventions 226

Index 228