People / Cognitive, behavioural and contextual
Jeffrey E. Young
Describes schemas, coping responses and modes as part of a model for understanding persistent patterns.
At a glance
Born 1950. American. Clinical Psychologist.
Active 1984 to present. Landmark year 1990. Clinical era: 1990 to 2009, contextual, attachment and trauma.
Lineage: Cognitive, behavioural and contextual. Roles: Modality founder or co-founder; Clinical theorist; Clinician and educator.
Associated modalities: Schema Therapy.
Psychologist who developed schema therapy, an integrative approach to persistent emotional and interpersonal difficulties.
Review status: Educational draft, subject review pending. Source status: source checks not documented for this draft. Dates, sources and clinical statements require independent verification and specialist review.
Clinical overview
Jeffrey E. Young is a psychologist whose work includes the development of schema therapy. He trained in cognitive therapy and described the approach with Janet Klosko and Marjorie Weishaar in Schema Therapy: A Practitioner’s Guide (2003).
Schema therapy draws on cognitive, attachment, psychodynamic and experiential traditions. Its authors describe a model for understanding persistent patterns and ways of working with them in psychotherapy.
Historical and clinical context
In the 2003 guide, Young and colleagues propose that unmet emotional needs in childhood can contribute to early maladaptive schemas. They state that their list of needs was derived from theory and clinical observation and had not been tested empirically at the time of publication.
Schema modes are used in the model to describe emotional and coping states. These concepts are clinical hypotheses, not established explanations for every person’s experiences.
Core therapeutic contributions
Eighteen Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMS) and Five Domains. The authors describe early maladaptive schemas and group them into domains. Their proposed account of developmental needs is a theoretical framework, not a diagnosis.
Three Maladaptive Coping Styles. The model distinguishes schema surrender, avoidance and overcompensation as proposed coping responses; an individual may respond in different ways.
Schema Mode Work. Schema modes describe patterns of feeling and coping that may become active in a particular situation. The model offers clinicians one way of organising observations.
Limited Reparenting and Empathic Confrontation. The approach describes limited reparenting and empathic confrontation as ways of working within a therapeutic relationship. Boundaries and the suitability of interventions depend on the person and setting.
In the consulting room
Therapeutic stance. The guide describes an engaged therapeutic relationship and clinical boundaries as part of schema therapy.
Signature practices. Discussing patterns that the person and practitioner identify together; Using imagery or chair dialogues where appropriate to explore experiences and responses; Reviewing coping responses and considering changes in everyday situations
Common misreadings. Treating a proposed schema or mode as proof of a person’s history or a diagnosis; Assuming an intervention is suitable for every client or relationship
Landmark clinical works
1990, Cognitive Therapy for Personality Disorders: A Schema-Focused Approach (manual). Original monograph introducing Early Maladaptive Schemas and extending cognitive therapy to characterological disorders.
1993, Reinventing Your Life (with Janet S. Klosko) (book). Translated eleven core schemas ('lifetraps') into a widely used client guide.
2003, Schema Therapy: A Practitioner's Guide (with Janet S. Klosko and Marjorie E. Weishaar) (book). Clinical guide describing the authors’ model, assessment and treatment techniques; the first-chapter excerpt was consulted, not the complete book.
Clinical critiques and limitations
The authors noted in 2003 that their list of childhood needs had not been empirically tested at the time. The model should not be treated as a proven account of the cause of every person’s difficulties.
In a 2006 Dutch randomised trial, both schema-focused and transference-focused treatment groups improved over three years; the schema-focused group showed greater improvement on some measures and lower dropout. The analysis included 86 outpatients and did not determine the best treatment for every person.
Clinical genealogy
Influences and mentors: Aaron Temkin Beck; Edward John Mostyn Bowlby; Friedrich Salomon Perls; Joseph Wolpe.
Collaborators: Janet S. Klosko; Marjorie E. Weishaar; Arnoud Arntz; Wendy Behary.
Students and successors: Arnoud Arntz; Gitta Jacob; Joan Farrell; Ida Shaw; Wendy Behary.
Sources and inspection notes
Supports: A dated check of its relevance to this profile is not recorded for this draft
Young, J. E. (1990). Cognitive Therapy for Personality Disorders: A Schema-Focused Approach. Professional Resource Exchange.
Supports: A dated check of its relevance to this profile is not recorded for this draft
Supports: A dated check of its relevance to this profile is not recorded for this draft