people and then acts in a manner which makes it evenmore difficult for them to give to him (Schema surrender). At times he will act in avery demanding, belligerent manner and provoke fights with his partners (Schemaovercompensation). Sam avoids getting too close to women, yet denies that he hasany problems in this area (Schema avoidance).Therapeutic Process - Changing SchemasIn schema therapy the goal of the treatment is to engage in schema healing processes.These processes are intended to weaken the early maladaptive schemas and copingstyles as much as possible, and build up the persons healthy side. An alliance is formedbetween the therapist and the healthy part of the client against the schemas. Any ofthe therapy activities described below may be seen as examples of schema healing.The first step in therapy is to do a comprehensive assessment of the client. The maingoal of this assessment is to identify the schemas and coping styles that are mostimportant in the clients psychological makeup. There are several steps to this process.The therapist generally will first want to know about recent events or circumstances inthe clients lives which have led them to come for help. The therapist will then discussthe clients life history and look for patterns which may be related to schemas.There are several other steps the therapist will take in assessing schemas. We use theYoung Schema Questionnaire, which the client fills out, listing many of the thoughts,feeling and behaviors related to the different schemas; items on this questionnaire canbe rated as to how relevant to the clients life they are.There are also various imagery techniques which the therapist can use to assessschemas. One specific technique involves asking clients to close their eyes and create animage of themselves as children with their parents. Often the images that appear willlead to the core schemas.Jonathan is a 28 year old executive whose core schema is Mistrust/Abuse. He cameto therapy because he was having bouts of intense anxiety at work, during which hewould be overly suspicious and resentful of his co-workers. When asked to create animage of himself with his family, he had two different images. In the first he saw himselfbeing terrorized by his older brother. In the second he saw his alcoholic father cominghome and beating his mother, while he cowered in fear.There are many techniques that the therapist can use to help clients weaken theirschemas. These techniques can be broken down into four categories: emotive,interpersonal, cognitive and behavioral. Each of these categories will be brieflydiscussed, along with a few examples.Emotive techniques encourage clients to experience and express the emotional aspectsof their problem. One way this is done is by having clients close their eyes and imaginethey are having a conversation with the person to whom the emotion is directed. Theyare then encouraged to express the emotions as completely as possible in the imaginarydialogue. One woman whose core schema was Emotional Deprivation had severalsuch sessions in which she had an opportunity to express her anger at her parents fornot being there enough for her emotionally. Each time she expressed these feelings, shewas able to distance herself further from