5. Emotional Schema Therapy: A Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Summary

Originally, the Beckian cognitive model focused on information processing biases that characterize depression, anxiety, anger, and personality disorders. Emotional schema therapy is a model of implicit theory of emotion, consistent with recent emphasis on theory of mind. Specifically, this model suggests that differences in the awareness, evaluation, causal attribution, affective forecasting, shame, and normalization of emotion differentially impact vulnerability to depression and anxiety. In this chapter, the emotional schema model is described; similarities and differences between this model and acceptance and commitment therapy, metacognitive therapy, and Beckian cognitive therapy are delineated; and implications for treatment are identified.