Schema Focused Therapy (SFT)
Schema Therapy is an evidence-based approach that helps people understand long-standing emotional patterns that began early in life and continue to influence how they think, feel, and relate to others. It brings together insights from cognitive, behavioural, attachment, and experiential therapies to create deep, lasting change.
Schemas are core beliefs or emotional themes about ourselves and the world that develop in childhood.
When our needs for safety, love, acceptance, or independence aren’t consistently met, we can form unhelpful patterns such as perfectionism, people-pleasing, mistrust, or self-criticism. Over time, these patterns can lead to difficulties with relationships, confidence, and emotional wellbeing.
Schema Therapy helps people recognise and understand these patterns with compassion rather than self-blame. The goal isn’t to “get rid of” parts of ourselves, but to heal the unmet emotional needs that shaped these patterns, creating space for more flexible, confident, and authentic ways of being.
Our Approach
At Psychology Centre Newcastle, our clinicians understand that every person’s emotional responses and coping patterns make sense within their history and nervous system. Therapy focuses on emotional safety, insight, and self-compassion, helping clients reconnect with their values, strengths, and capacity for change.
What Schema Therapy Involves
Schema Therapy sessions combine emotional exploration, self-reflection, and experiential techniques such as imagery rescripting, chair work, or parts dialogue. These approaches help clients understand different “modes” or parts of themselves and learn how to meet their emotional needs in healthier ways.
Together, clients and therapists work to:
Identify recurring emotional and behavioural patterns
Understand how these patterns developed and what needs they represent
Gently connect with underlying emotions and memories
Strengthen the part of them that can nurture, set boundaries, and respond with self-compassion
Over time, clients begin to respond to stress, relationships, and setbacks with greater awareness, balance, and kindness toward themselves.
The Benefits of Schema Therapy
Schema Therapy can help individuals to:
Understand and heal long-standing emotional patterns
Strengthen self-compassion and emotional awareness
Improve communication and relationships
Develop healthy boundaries and reduce people-pleasing
Manage stress and reduce anxiety or low mood
Build a stronger, more confident sense of self
At Psychology Centre Newcastle, Schema Therapy offers a powerful pathway for understanding yourself more deeply and creating meaningful, lasting change. It supports individuals to rediscover inner strength, and live with greater authenticity, balance, and emotional wellbeing.
