It is not easy for people to admit they are struggling. But it’s important to be able to recognize when this is the case and make the decision to take control of their lives by seeking help. A great way to start on this journey is through online schema therapy courses.
These courses typically last 12 weeks and cover everything from understanding how schemas affect your life, identifying negative thought patterns that support these schemas, exploring ways of changing these thought patterns, and finally working towards releasing emotional pain that has been stored in your body over time.
What is a schema?
Schema is jargon for psychological schema, the cognitive structures that guide the processing of information. Schemas are situated in an individual’s background knowledge and can be used to predict how they will interpret new information.
What is Schema Therapy?
People with different schemas may often perceive the same event differently due to each schema creating its own interpretation of situations. A practical example would be that if you have mutually negative associations with someone, then every time they act in a way resembling their normal behavior (which you already know), you might view them as doing something “bad”. Schema therapy is a type of psychotherapy that focuses on, and is concerned with the meanings of, life experiences. It specifically seeks to resolve issues by understanding early childhood emotions or conflicts and how they were handled.
We start with verbal communication in which the patient expresses some emotion about their experience while employing particular life schemas (ways of handling emotional conflicts). The therapist then emphasizes what was simultaneously expressed verbally and nonverbally, for example, anger embraced or rage suppressed. However, although person-to-person communication has an unspoken emotional component, schema therapy takes into account nonverbal communication as well.
Online Schema Therapy:
Just like many other services, online schema therapy courses can be accessed from the comfort of your house. The online schema therapy course services have been in use for well over a decade and it is largely credited with helping many people since then.
There are many providers of online schema courses, all of which provide online schema therapy courses at different rates. The average rate depends on the quality of the service. The standard online schema therapists work directly via video chat. Here are 7 of the best online schema therapy courses you can find:
1- Schema Therapy Associates
Schema Therapy Associates was founded by clinical psychologists Tara Green and Gill Health who were students of Jeffrey Young, the founder of Schema Therapy.
On their ISST (International Society of Schema Therapy) approved Certification Programme they support you through your development as a Schema Therapist, from the in-depth program of teaching to specialist supervision that we match to your needs, to resources that guide you through the steps to certification. There are two different courses for different levels.
You can find further information about online schema therapy on their website.
2- Schema Therapy Training Online:
This site has been founded by clinical psychologists Chris Hayes and Rob Brockman who are providing different online courses on online schema therapy. The sessions involve online workshops, skills demonstrations, live group meetings, podcasts, and exercises that you can practice your therapy skills. There are also specific courses for specific schemes as well.
You can find the courses here.
3- Schema Therapy Institute Australia
Schema Therapy Institute Australia offers online or face-to-face schema therapy courses which consist of 3 modules. In this online schema therapy course, three different courses will be given to you over three weeks. The Institute expects you to attend all of the classes and in the end, you are entitled to an ISST certificate. With their expert and diverse staff, the course will be a breeze.
You can find their courses here.
4- Psychology Training
In Psychology Training, an expert and diverse team led by Assoc Prof Christopher Lee, Dr. Sarah Schubert, and Dr. Sarah Dominguez teach courses on Schema Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization, and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) at both introductory and advanced levels. The workshops have small numbers and there is an emphasis on experiential learning, so that you actively participate in each of the sessions that we conduct. All of their trainers are actively practicing and researching the therapies they teach.
You can find online and face-to-face courses here.
5- International Society of Schema Therapy
The International Society for Schema Therapy (ISST) is a member organization that promotes schema therapy’s ideals and methods. ISST brings together a worldwide network of clinicians, researchers, educators, and enthusiasts to establish standards of excellence for schema therapy practice, including trainings, workshops, research, and certifications. You can find various classes on different levels of psychology education through the ISST.
For further information on their classes: The ISST Website.
There are many ways to learn about schema therapy online. The choice of which method best suits your needs depends on what your budget and time commitment will be like. Regardless of the path you take, we hope this blog post has helped inform you about how schema therapy can help people overcome emotional difficulties related to past events in their lives by changing patterns of thinking and behaving.
