What are Schema Domains?
Based on research, the 18 schemas have been grouped into 5 broad developmental categories of schemas that are called schema domains. Each of the five domains represents an important component of a child’s core needs. Schemas interfere with the child’s attempts to get the core needs met within each domain.
The Five Schema Domains Defined
DISCONNECTION & REJECTION
The Expectation that one’s needs for security, safety, stability, nurturance, empathy, sharing of feelings, acceptance, and respect will not be met in a predictable manner. Typical family origin is detached, cold, rejecting, withholding, lonely, explosive, unpredictable, or abusive.
Schemas:
- Abandonment/Instability
- Mistrust/Abuse
- Emotional Deprivation
- Defectiveness/Shame
- Social Isolation/Alienation
IMPAIRED AUTONOMY & PERFORMANCE
Expectations about oneself and the environment that interfere with one’s perceived ability to separate, survive, function independently, or perform successfully. Typical family origin is enmeshed, undermining of child’s confidence, overprotective, or failing to reinforce child for performing competently outside the family.
Schemas:
- Dependence/Incompetence
- Vulnerability to Harm and Illness
- Enmeshment/Undeveloped Self
- Failure
IMPAIRED LIMITS
Deficiency in internal limits, responsibility to others, or long-term goal-orientation. Leads to difficulty respecting the rights of others, cooperating with others, making commitments, or setting and meeting realistic personal goals. Typical family origin is characterized by permissiveness, overindulgence, lack of direction, or a sense of superiority — rather than appropriate confrontation, discipline, and limits in relation to taking responsibility, cooperating in a reciprocal manner, and setting goals. In some cases, child may not have been pushed to tolerate normal levels of discomfort, or may not have been given adequate supervision, direction, or guidance.
Schemas:
- Entitlement/Grandiosity
- Insufficient Self Control/Self-Discipline
OTHER-DIRECTEDNESS
An excessive focus on the desires, feelings, and responses of others, at the expense of one’s own needs — in order to gain love and approval, maintain one’s sense of connection, or avoid retaliation. Usually involves suppression and lack of awareness regarding one’s own anger and natural inclinations. Typical family origin is based on conditional acceptance: children must suppress important aspects of themselves in order to gain love, attention, and approval. In many such families, the parents’ emotional needs and desires — or social acceptance and status — are valued more than the unique needs and feelings of each child.
Schemas:
- Subjugation
- Self-Sacrifice
- Approval Seeking/Recognition Seeking
OVERVIGILANCE & INHIBITION
Excessive emphasis on suppressing one’s spontaneous feelings, impulses, and choices OR on meeting rigid, internalized rules and expectations about performance and ethical behavior — often at the expense of happiness, self-expression, relaxation, close relationships, or health. Typical family origin is grim, demanding, and sometimes punitive: performance, duty, perfectionism, following rules, hiding emotions, and avoiding mistakes predominate over pleasure, joy, and relaxation. There is usually an undercurrent of pessimism and worry — that things could fall apart if one fails to be vigilant and careful at all times.
Schemas:
- Negativity/Pessimism
- Emotional Inhibition
- Unrelenting Standards/Hyper-Criticalness
- Punitiveness
How to Find Schema Therapy – San Jose/Los Gatos and Sacramento/Roseville
The Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center specializes in schema therapy. Click to send an email for more information on how we can help you using schema therapy.
Silicon Valley Communities We Serve
Cognitive Behavior Therapy Center of Silicon Valley offers evidence-based therapy for Anxiety and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder near the following Silicon Valley/San Jose communities:
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