Abstract:

Although the basic idea behind reparenting is quite simple, applying it in practice is very complex. In the process of reparenting, we need to be attending to the client’s needs, but what the client needs changes depending on what mode he or she is in. In this workshop we will examine several complicating factors that include: 1. offering a reparenting relationship when the client is in a coping mode, or 2. in the Healthy Adult mode; 3. how the triggering of the therapist’s schemas interferes with the ability to offer reparenting; 4. how the needs of the client’s Child change with age, so that reparenting means meeting different needs depending on the age of the child part being reparented; 5. how the needs of a child part differ depending on whether there is a Vulnerable Child, an Angry or Enraged child or a child in a coping mode (a coping child), and the nature of the schemas involved in each case; 6. when a child part is backstage to a frontstage coping mode, we need to find the backstage child and offer reparenting to him or her; 7. sometimes important child parts are dissociated and each one needs to be found and reparented; 8. what to do when a child part refuses our offer of reparenting either through mistrust or because they insist on having their needs met by the actual parent. Learning objectives By attending this workshop, participants will be sensitized to several aspects of reparenting and the reparenting relationship with clients. Through the examination of the definition of reparenting and several obstacles to effective reparenting that will be presented in the workshop, they will be able to identify problems and attend to them more sensitively when they arise in their own therapy work. Teaching methods Presentation will be on a comprehensive powerpoint which will include case examples. There will also be experiential exercises. The powerpoint will be made available to participants after the workshop. Implications for everyday clinical practice in Schema Therapy The themes highlighted in the abstract are all directly relevant to problems and obstacles regularly encountered in the practice of schema therapy.

Aims:

To highlight a series of complicating factors (summarized in the abstract) that impact on the capacity of therapists to effectively offer reparenting.

Teaching Methods:

Presentation will be on a comprehensive powerpoint. This will include significant transcripts from sessions (some with audio). There will also be short experiential group exercises.

Learning Objectives:

By attending this workshop, participants will be sensitized to aspects of reparenting and the reparenting relationship with clients. Through the examination of the definition of reparenting and five obstacles to effective reparenting that will be presented in the workshop, they will be able to identify the problems and attend to them when they arise in their own therapy work.

Workshop Intended For:

Everyone

Relevant Background Readings on Topic:

The powerpoint which will include some suggested reading will be made available to participants after the workshop

About the Presenter:

David Edwards

David Edwards lives in Cape Town, South Africa, where he runs a training program in schema therapy through the Schema Therapy Institute of South Africa. He presents basic and advanced training workshops in schema therapy in South Africa and internationally. He also has an active private practice offering psychotherapy and clinical supervision. He is registered as a Clinical Psychologist in South Africa and the United Kingdom. He trained in cognitive-behavioural, humanistic and transpersonal approaches to psychotherapy, and has a longstanding interest in psychotherapy integration. He was fortunate to be introduced to schema therapy by Jeffrey Young, the founder of schema therapy, in the 1980s and has followed its development from its beginnings. He is an Emeritus Professor at Rhodes University, where, for over 25 years, he taught cognitive-behavioural therapy (including schema therapy) to trainee clinical and counselling psychologists, and offered intensive workshops to students using expressive therapies including psychodrama, clay sculpture, drawing and dance. Since his retirement at the end of 2009 he continues to work as a researcher and research supervisor. He has over 100 academic publications in the form of journal articles and book chapters.

The focus of many of these is trauma and complex trauma. Several of them are clinical case studies and he is one of the editors of Case studies within psychotherapy trials: Integrating qualitative and quantitative methods (Oxford University Press, 2017). He has also written articles and book chapters on imagery methods in psychotherapy and is the author, with Michael Jacobs, of Conscious and unconscious in the series Core concepts in psychotherapy (McGraw Hill, 2003). The focus of his current work is on the phenomenology of schema modes and understanding the deep structure of modes. This is reflected in a recent pair of articles on modes in a case of anorexia nervosa (Edwards 2017a and Edwards 2017b).