Schema-Focused Therapy (SFT)
Definition
Jeffrey Young's CBT extension for personality disorder, addressing early maladaptive schemas through a combination of cognitive restructuring, experiential techniques, and the therapeutic relationship. Used in forensic settings for Cluster B personality disorder patients.
- Developer
- Jeffrey Young
- Base approach
- CBT extension
- Target
- Early maladaptive schemas
- Forensic use
- Cluster B personality disorder offenders
Common questions
How does schema-focused therapy differ from standard CBT?+
Standard CBT typically targets current thoughts and behaviours around a specific problem, while SFT works further back at deep-seated patterns formed in childhood, using experiential and relational techniques alongside cognitive restructuring to address them.
Why is SFT particularly relevant to Cluster B offenders?+
Cluster B presentations, such as borderline or narcissistic traits, are often linked to entrenched maladaptive schemas around abandonment, mistrust, or entitlement, which standard symptom-focused therapy addresses less directly than a schema-based approach.
Related terms
- Community Treatment Order (CTO)
- A legal order under the Mental Health Act 1983 (England and Wales) requiring a patient discharged from hospital to adhere to specified...
- Dangerous Severe Personality Disorder (DSPD)
- A UK policy category (not a diagnostic term) for individuals assessed as presenting grave and immediate danger due to personality disorder. DSPD...
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
- Marsha Linehan's structured treatment for borderline personality disorder, combining acceptance and change strategies across four skill modules (mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation,...
- Mentally Disordered Offender (MDO)
- An individual who has committed an offence and who has a diagnosable mental disorder that is aetiologically or functionally linked to that...
- Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT)
- Greg Little and Kenneth Robinson's manualized group programme targeting moral reasoning development through structured workbook exercises. Widely used in US corrections; evidence...
- Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST)
- Scott Henggeler's community-based intensive family therapy for serious juvenile offenders, targeting all ecological levels (family, peers, school, neighbourhood) simultaneously. Has strong RCT...
- NIMHANS
- National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore; India's principal academic forensic mental health centre, providing court-ordered assessments and limited forensic treatment...