Reimagining Schema Therapy: A Queer Approach to Trans and Gender Diversity-Inclusive Practice
Xi Liu, Isis Yager and Amanda Garcia Torres
For transgender clients, societal stigma often leads to adverse formative experiences rooted in gender experience and expression, potentially resulting in early maladaptive schemas related to disconnection and rejection.
Schema Therapy offers a powerful avenue for healing through emotionally corrective experiences.
However, many therapists have not been supported in recognising how social and cultural factors, such as cisgenderism and heteronormativity, impact the therapeutic needs and opportunities for healing when working with marginalised communities. This influence extends well beyond individual and family-of-origin issues.
This underrepresentation of LGBTQIA+ therapists may also create therapeutic blind spots and biases, potentially affecting treatment effectiveness. This paper describes the aims and impacts of a half-day Schema Therapy Workshop on adapting the modality for trans clients.
The purpose of this workshop was to explore treatment approaches that actively challenge biases and incorporate social and cultural factors into every facet of therapy, from formulation to treatment implementation.
This paper reflects on how we aimed to fulfill this purpose, the lessons learned, and potential ways forward by reimagining Schema Therapy through a queer lens to enhance its therapeutic potential in the mental health care of clients with diverse gender identities.
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