and clinical psychologist) and Hannie van Genderen MPhil, (clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, and Supervisor of the International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST) and the Dutch Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy) worked together at the Riagg Maastricht. They were involved there in numerous studies in the field of anxiety disorders and personality disorders. Arnoud Arntz was project leader of the Dutch multi‐center trial comparing schema therapy with transference‐focused psychotherapy. One of his main research interests is borderline personality disorder.
Since 2014, Arnoud Arntz has been Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Amsterdam. He is, together with Joan Farrell, Principal Investigator of the international trial comparing two forms of group schema therapy for borderline to each other and to optimal treatment as usual. He practices as a clinical psychologist at the PsyQ mental health center in Amsterdam.
Hannie van Genderen has worked since 2016 as a clinical psychologist in her own private practice. Since 2000 she has been the Director of “Schematherapieopeidingen” a Dutch Institute for Schema Therapy that organizes standard and advanced level international certification training programs in schema therapy (individual for adults, children and adolescents, and group therapy). In addition to training in schema therapy for borderline personality disorder, specialized training courses on Cluster C, workshops on Imagery Rescripting, Chairwork, Angry Modes, Depression, The Healthy Adult, and Narcissitic Personality Disorder are offered (see www.schematherapieopleidingen.nl).
Preface
Schema therapy is a relatively new integrative psychotherapy based on cognitive models and offers an effective treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Several trials have now documented its effectiveness and cost‐effectiveness compared to psychodynamic treatment and treatment as usual. Moreover, dropout from treatment is consistently low, indicating that schema therapy is well accepted by patients.
This book offers a practical guide for therapists to conduct schema therapy with BPD patients. Building upon Jeffrey Young's schema mode model, Young's schema therapy, and insights from Beckian cognitive therapy and experiential methods, it offers a conceptual model of BPD, a treatment model, and a wealth of methods and techniques for treating BPD patients. The treatment not only addresses the DSM BPD criteria‐related problems, but also the psychopathological personality features underlying the symptoms, like attachment problems, punitive conscience, inadequately processed childhood traumas and so on. Research has demonstrated that patients improve in all these aspects, including on the level of automatic information processing.
The authors equate their treatment to blind simultaneous chess playing in a pinball machine, meaning that the therapist has to be actively aware of the abundance of quickly changing factors that play a role in the patient's problems, and simultaneously has to address them. Though treatment of BPD is complicated, many therapists can learn this method. Experienced therapists with good stamina will feel supported and stimulated by the book's practical explanations and examples. Central in the therapeutic relationship is the concept of “limited reparenting,” which forms the basis for a warm and collaborative relationship. A good therapeutic relationship is not enough, however. Therefore, numerous experiential, interpersonal, cognitive and behavioral methods and techniques are described that are specifically suited for the treatment of BPD patients. Finally, the book offers specific methods to be used in the treatment of very difficult cases and helps the therapist to deal with the many pitfalls that can arise from the treatment of BPD.
Since the publication of the first edition of this book in 2009 several important developments took place in schema therapy. Moreover, from teaching schema therapy we learned about bottlenecks that participants encountered in applying the treatment. We also realized that the general approach and the techniques change throughout the different stages of therapy. This necessitated a thorough revision. In this new edition we have revised the text so that new insights and methods are integrated. This revised approach leads to a speeding up of treatment, without loss of effectiveness. The new edition describes how techniques should be adapted to the phase of therapy. We also discuss new approaches related to the application of schema therapy in groups, couples, and youths. The latest research findings and their implications for clinical practice are discussed, and the theoretical underpinnings of the schema mode model are now more extensively covered. We treat more schema modes now, as many patients present with additional modes than covered by the basic mode model of BPD, and the clinician should know how to handle these. Lastly, we now refer to fragments of the audiovisual production “step by step” illustrating the different techniques.
Acknowledgments
The writing of a book combined with a busy job at the Maastricht Community Mental Health Centre demanded much time, which I managed to find thanks to the unconditional support of my late husband Leo Scheffer. He not only took over much of the care of the family but also helped me with reading and typing out the texts. I thank my children Sacha and Zoë for their patience as they heard “not now” many times during this period.
I learned the treatment of patients with personality disorders thanks to the many training opportunities organized by Arnoud Arntz from Maastricht University, by inviting, among others, Tim Beck, Cory Newman, Jeffrey Young, Christine Padesky, Kathleen Mooney, Joan Farrell and Ida Shaw. However, I especially learned a great deal from Arnoud himself, through his enthusiasm and assertiveness in continuously discovering new ways to treat “untreatable” patients, just like the ones with borderline personality disorder.
I would like to thank my colleagues from RIAGG Maastricht, particularly Arnoud Arntz, Tonny van Gisbergen and Wiesette Krol from the Borderline peer supervision group, for their collaboration and support while learning to treat patients with borderline personality disorder. Marjon Nadort, Marleen Rijkeboer and Remco van der Wijngaart I want to thank for years of collaboration: with them I have given the majority of courses and workshops. Together we have always found better ways to teach schema therapy to colleagues.
I am also indebted to my colleagues Monique Wijers, Monique Auerbach, Ina Krijgsman and my brother‐in‐law Igor van de Wal as they have read the whole book, asked wise questions and suggested additions.
The patients I have treated may have contributed most to this book. Examples in this book are (anonymously) taken from our conversations, and I have learned a lot from them. The diagnosis of borderline personality disorder is unfortunately not yet accepted to the extent that I could list their names here. But my heartfelt thanks to you.
Hannie van Genderen
Without my teachers, one of them the co‐author of this book, I should have never reached the point of treating people with borderline personality disorder. I am very grateful for this. I would like to give my special thanks to Tim Beck, Christine Padesky, Kathleen Mooney, Cory Newman, Joan Farrell, and Ida Shaw, and particularly Jeffrey Young for what they taught our team in their workshops. Jeffrey Young in particular deserves my thanks, as he developed a model that not only matched with my own early thinking about borderline personality disorder, but also developed a comprehensive treatment, which is the subject of this book. My therapist and research colleagues, among whom are my former PhD candidates Laura Dreessen, Anoek Weertman, Simkje Sieswerda, Joos Bloo, Thea van Asselt, Marjon Nadort, Lotte Bamelis and Jill Lobbestael, I also want to thank for the help they provided with developing the treatments and the research into borderline personality disorder. Moreover, I would like to thank the research assistants and interns who have conducted many studies, and especially the patients who have taken part in the treatment and the research, without whom we could not have gained insight into these complex problems and their treatment.
Ultimately, this book could not have come about without the opportunities offered by the Maastricht Community Mental Health Centre to the academic
