from Part III - Applications and Adaptations for Mental Health Presentations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 July 2023
This chapter illustrates the complex functions that eating disorder behaviour can take, including self-punishment, emotional avoidance, empowerment, mastery, self-regulation, and appeasement of others. The schema therapy approach encourages disaggregating these functions, personifying them, understanding them, and directing dialogues between them. A case study illustrates the way in which the schema mode model can be applied to work with eating disorder symptoms alongside complex trauma. A sufficient level of medical and nutritional stability (as indicated by blood tests and weight) must be reached in order to provide sufficient safety for therapy to proceed. A key component of schema therapy is to understand the unmet needs and schemas that have led to the development of an eating disorder. In schema therapy, the client gradually learns to reconnect with her/his inner child states and needs through extensive therapeutic work – which includes imagery rescripting, chairwork mode dialogues, and somatic, cognitive, and behavioural techniques. Coping modes are not just bypassed, but through imagery and chairwork are actively acknowledged and integrated to form a Healthy Adult ‘team’ that works to prioritise the inner child modes and ultimately meet the client’s nutritional, physiological, and emotional needs.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.