Aims:

• Learn how to identify the 10 dysfunctional patterns of parenting.
• Learn how to identify the 7 positive patterns of parenting, core attachment needs and good parent modes
• Learn how to identify the 14 positive schemas
• Learn a way of integrating all of the above constructs into an overall schema/mode conceptualization that provides a dashboard for limited reparenting that your patient collaborates in developing.
• Learn how to utilize the new positive constructs to reinvent your approach to limited reparenting and aid in the process of developing positive schemas and modes.

Teaching Methods:

Powerpoint presentation, video taped therapy sessions, and role-plays.

Learning Objectives:

In Schema Therapy, core emotional needs are the central organizing principle for the therapeutic relationship. For decades we have assumed that each schema corresponds to a specific core need and dysfunctional pattern of parenting that thwarted this need. This is the premise upon which the YPI was developed. We have also assumed that by clarifying what went wrong, it is a relatively straightforward process to determine what is required to meet the need. This is based on the assumption that there is a one to one correspondence between a negative and positive parenting pattern. These assumptions have served us well. They are also in need of a significant update, an update that holds the promise of reinventing the therapeutic relationship in ways that can help us be more effective as limited parents.

A recent line of investigation (Louis et al. 2018; Louis et al. 2022) has arrived at 10 rather than 18 negative parenting patterns. This clarifies that dysfunctional parenting is organized in a different way than schemas and that the 18 schemas are not the best framework for discerning what went wrong in one’s childhood. It requires its own assessment process. Another investigation was the first Schema Therapy based exploration of the landscape of healthy parenting. 7 positive parenting patterns were discovered that are relatively distinct from the negative patterns (they did not form continua). This shows that good parenting also has its own structure and figuring out what is needed does not necessarily flow directly from knowing what went wrong. In another another, complimentary, line of investigation ( ) the nature and structure of positive schemas was explored and, true to form, it turned out that positive schemas are not simply counterpoints to negative ones (i.e. there are not clearly defined continua) but also have a structure of their own.

The implications of these discoveries for how best to identify and meet core emotional needs and develop positive schemas and modes and thereby reinvent the nature and scope of the therapeutic relationship are being explored and developed ( e.g. Lockwood and Samson, 2020). This reinvention provides an empirically based update to the 5 core emotional needs Young hypothesized in the form of 7 core attachment needs. These constructs can help to both deepen and broaden our understanding of what we are doing when we reparent and what healthy modes our patients are internalizing.

A tool for integrating all of this information (including information on modes and temperament) into a comprehensive therapy dashboard to guide the process of limited reparenting will be presented. This includes an update to the Schema Therapy Schema/Mode Conceptualization form and a parallel framework for our patients to collaborate in the process through the development of “My Life Story”.

Examples of the ways these constructs and processes add to our work in normal outpatient Schema Therapy practice will be provided covering schema and mode focused work, including work with complex trauma and exceptionally challenging cases. Experiential exercises will be provided.

Workshop Intended For:

Everyone

Relevant Background Readings on Topic:

Lockwood, G., & Perris, P. (2012). A new look at core emotional needs. In M. van Vreeswijk, J. Broersen & M. Nadort (Eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Schema Therapy: Theory, Research and Science (pp. 41-66). Wiley-Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9781119962830.ch3

Lockwood, G., & Samson, R. (2020). Understand and Meeting Core Emotional Needs. In G. Heath & H. Startup (Eds.), Creative

Methods in Schema Therapy: Advances in Clinical Practice (pp.76-90). Routledge.

Lockwood, G., Shaw, I. (2012). Schema Therapy and the role of joy and play. In M. van Vreeswijk, J. Broersen, & M. Nadort (Eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Schema Therapy: Theory, Research and Science (pp. 209–227). Wiley-Blackwell.

Louis, J.P., Louis, K.M. and Lockwood, G.K. (2022), Development and Validation of the Young Parenting Inventory (YPI-R3) for

Measuring Past Deviant and Normal Variations in Parenting. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Louis, J.P., Davidson, A.T., Lockwood, G. et al. (2020). Positive perceptions of parenting and their links to theorized core emotional needs. Journal of Child and Family Studies. Online. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-020-01807-0

Louis, J. P., Wood, A. M., & Lockwood, G. (2018). Psychometric validation of the Young Parenting Inventory - Revised (YPI-R2): Replication and extension of a commonly used parenting scale in Schema Therapy (ST) research and practice. Plos One, 13(11), e0205605. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205605

Louis J.P., Wood A.M., Lockwood G. (2020). Development and validation of the Positive Parenting Schema Inventory (PPSI) to

complement the Young Parenting Inventory (YPI) for Schema Therapy (ST). Assessment, 27(4), 766-786. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073191118798464

Louis, J. P., Wood, A. M., Lockwood, G., Ho, M. R., & Ferguson, E. (2018). Positive clinical psychology and Schema Therapy (ST): The development of the Young Positive Schema Questionnaire (YPSQ) to complement the Young Schema Questionnaire 3 Short Form

(YSQ-S3). Psychological Assessment, 30(9), 1199-1218. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000567

About the Presenter:

George Lockwood