Schema Therapy is a powerful approach rooted in emotion-focused, attachment, and psychodynamic models. The word schema comes from the Latin ‘schemata,’ which means a theme or a script. These are the deep emotional patterns we form early in life — often without realizing it — based on how our core emotional needs were or weren’t met.

As children, we all have basic emotional needs. These include the need to feel safe and stable, to be nurtured and loved, to receive empathy and validation, to develop autonomy, to have healthy limits and guidance, and to experience acceptance, play, and joy. When these needs aren’t consistently met — whether through neglect, criticism, trauma, or even subtle emotional misattunement — we form schemas. These schemas are like inner scripts or stories that tell us who we are and how relationships work.

Together, we’ll explore what scripts might have taken root for you. For instance, if you had a caregiver who was emotionally neglectful or abusive, you might have developed a defectiveness schema — the deep belief that you are inherently flawed, unworthy, or unlovable. These beliefs don’t just stay in your head — they shape how you see yourself, how you relate to others, and how you move through the world.

To protect against the pain of feeling ‘not good enough,’ you might have learned to overcompensate — striving to be perfect, successful, or always in control, hoping that achievement will earn you the love or approval you didn’t receive as a child. But underneath that drive is often a younger part of you still carrying those unmet emotional needs.

Schema Therapy helps us gently uncover these inner patterns, not to judge them, but to understand them. We begin to see the ways they may have once helped us survive, but are now keeping us stuck. And from there, we begin the healing — validating those early experiences, releasing the emotional pain they carry, and slowly rewriting the script.

The goal isn’t just insight — it’s transformation. We’ll work toward helping you meet those emotional needs now in healthier, more fulfilling ways. To feel safe within yourself. To connect with others without fear or self-sacrifice. And to begin living from a place of wholeness, not old wounds.