International meetings turn therapeutic

Professor Dave Edwards recently gave a keynote address at a conference of the International Society for Schema Therapy (ISST) in Berlin. His title was “Experiential work with imagery and dialogue methods in psychotherapy: Historical development, current practice and significance within schema therapy.” 

Prof Edwards was invited to deliver the keynote address on the basis of an article published in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry on the history of imagery techniques in psychotherapy in 2007. The keynote was very well received. “Indeed I was somewhat overwhelmed at the enthusiasm of the response to my presentation,” said Prof Edwards upon his return from Berlin.

The address looked at the history of experiential techniques which are an important part of schema therapy. Schema therapy is a form of psychotherapy that integrates relational, experiential, cognitive and behavioural methods. It was developed by Jeffery Young and clinicians and academics working closely with him from around 1984. It is designed for clients with psychological problems that do not respond to short counselling or cognitive-behavioural interventions. It is even more suited to clients with personality disorders.

The use of imagery methods in traditional healing goes back thousands of years and can be found in most religious traditions. The keynote address traced modern applications of imagery methods from 18th century Europe through to the late nineteenth century where there was widespread research on dissociative states and experimentation with methods of treating them. Prof Edwards went on to explain the development of Jungian active imagination, hypnoanalysis and psychodrama in the first half of the twentieth century and the impact of the human potential movement from the 1960s.

Schema therapy appeals to many clinicians because of the sharpness of the conceptualisation and the elegance of the integration of methods from different traditions of psychotherapy. Its profile was enhanced when a three-year randomised controlled trial in Holland showed a high level of effectiveness in treating one of the most difficult classes of patient - those with borderline personality disorder. This was reported in 2006 in Archives of General Psychiatry.

In 2007 the International Society of Schema Therapy was formed (http://www.isst-online.com/) and a formal certification instituted and David Edwards was certified as a schema therapist at the end of 2008.