At Ādarśa, we offer schema therapy as part of our integrative approach to healing and personal growth. Based in Brunswick and Strathmore, Melbourne, we use schema therapy to help you understand the deeply held patterns that developed in childhood — and change the ones that are no longer serving you.
If you’ve ever felt like you keep falling into the same relationship patterns, struggle with self-worth, or react to situations in ways that feel automatic and hard to control, schema therapy can help you understand why — and more importantly, how to change it.
What Is Schema Therapy?
Schema therapy is an integrative approach that combines elements of cognitive behavioural therapy, attachment theory, psychodynamic concepts and experiential techniques. It was originally developed by Dr Jeffrey Young to help people with long-standing emotional difficulties that hadn’t responded well to other forms of therapy.
At the heart of schema therapy is the concept of “schemas” — deeply held beliefs and patterns that develop in childhood based on our early experiences. These schemas shape how we see ourselves, other people and the world around us.
For example, if your emotional needs were consistently unmet as a child, you might carry a schema of emotional deprivation — a deep belief that your needs will never be met, even when the people around you are willing and able to meet them. This belief can operate below conscious awareness, driving patterns in relationships, work and self-care that feel automatic and frustrating.
Schemas are not flaws or character defects. They were adaptive responses to your early environment — ways your mind learned to cope with what it was given. The problem is that these patterns often outlive their usefulness and end up causing difficulties in adult life.
Schema therapy helps you identify these patterns, understand where they came from, and develop healthier ways of responding.
Common Schemas
There are 18 recognised schemas in schema therapy, grouped into five broad categories. Some of the most common ones people recognise in themselves include:
Abandonment — a persistent fear that the people you care about will leave or be unavailable. This can show up as clinginess, jealousy, or pushing people away before they can leave.
Emotional deprivation — a belief that your emotional needs for connection, understanding or protection will never be adequately met.
Defectiveness — a deep sense that you are fundamentally flawed, unworthy or unlovable. This often leads to hiding parts of yourself or overcompensating to avoid being “found out.”
Mistrust — an expectation that others will hurt, manipulate or take advantage of you. This can make it difficult to trust even safe, reliable people.
Self-sacrifice — a pattern of putting others’ needs before your own to the point of burnout, resentment or loss of identity.
Unrelenting standards — a relentless drive to meet extremely high internal standards, often accompanied by self-criticism when you inevitably fall short.
Insufficient self-control — difficulty regulating emotions, tolerating frustration or following through on goals and commitments.
If any of these feel familiar, you’re not alone. Most people carry at least a few schemas from childhood. The question is whether they’re causing enough difficulty to warrant exploring them in therapy.
How We Use Schema Therapy at Ādarśa
At Ādarśa, schema therapy is woven into our broader integrative approach. Our founder and lead psychologist, Sharna Arti, combines schema therapy with somatic psychotherapy, EMDR and other modalities to address patterns at multiple levels — cognitive, emotional and physical.
This is important because schemas don’t just live in your thoughts. They show up in your body too — as tension, constriction, heaviness or physical bracing. By combining schema work with somatic awareness, we can access and shift these patterns more deeply than cognitive approaches alone.
In practice, schema therapy at Ādarśa may involve:
- Identifying your core schemas and understanding how they developed
- Recognising the “modes” (emotional states) that get triggered in daily life
- Experiential techniques such as imagery rescripting — revisiting early memories in a safe way to meet unmet needs
- Chair work and dialogue exercises to access and express emotions that have been suppressed
- Somatic awareness — noticing how schemas show up in the body and supporting release at a physical level
- EMDR to reprocess specific memories linked to schema formation
- Building healthier coping strategies to replace old patterns
The goal isn’t to erase your history. It’s to loosen the grip that old patterns have on your present life, so you can respond to situations with more choice, flexibility and self-compassion.
Who Can Schema Therapy Help?
Schema therapy can be particularly helpful if you:
- Keep repeating the same patterns in relationships despite wanting things to be different
- Struggle with self-worth, self-criticism or a persistent sense of not being enough
- Find it hard to set boundaries or stand up for your own needs
- Experience intense emotional reactions that feel disproportionate to the situation
- Have tried other forms of therapy and found they helped with symptoms but didn’t shift the deeper patterns
- Live with personality difficulties or have been given a personality disorder diagnosis
- Experience chronic anxiety, depression or dissatisfaction that doesn’t seem to have a clear cause
Schema therapy is also well suited for people who are curious about understanding themselves at a deeper level — not just managing symptoms, but genuinely changing the patterns that drive them.
What to Expect
Your first session will focus on understanding your history and current difficulties. Over the first few sessions, Sharna will work with you to identify your core schemas and the situations that tend to trigger them.
From there, the work becomes more experiential. Sessions may involve imagery work, somatic exercises, dialogue techniques and EMDR — always at a pace that feels safe and manageable for you.
Schema therapy is typically a longer-term approach, reflecting the fact that deeply held patterns take time to shift. Many clients find that the early sessions bring significant clarity and relief, even before the deeper change work begins.
Sessions are 60 minutes and can be combined with other modalities depending on what emerges in the work.
Funding and Pricing
- Private sessions: $280 per hour
- Medicare rebates are available with a Mental Health Care Plan (up to 10 sessions per calendar year)
- Session packages are available for ongoing therapy clients
Please contact us to discuss your options.
Location
Ādarśa offers schema therapy at two locations in Melbourne:
- Brunswick, VIC — inner north Melbourne, easily accessible from Fitzroy, Carlton, Northcote, Coburg and Brunswick East
- Strathmore, VIC — north-west Melbourne, convenient for Essendon, Moonee Ponds, Pascoe Vale and surrounding areas
We also serve clients from across greater Melbourne.
Book a Session
If you’d like to explore whether schema therapy could help you, or if you have questions about the process, we’d love to hear from you.
Phone: 03 9007 2559 Email: sharna.psych@gmail.com Online: Contact us here