Abstract:

It is important that we assess the impact the lockdown has had on people’s psychological and mental health, by observing the emotions and the schemas triggered during this period. Upon the appearance of meaningful clinical symptoms linked to the coronavirus pandemic that trigger people’s schemas, each of them might well use more than one coping style. This fact led us to research the question via a survey of people’s maladaptive behaviors and the emotions they were experiencing. We chose a quantitative research method using the Early Maladaptive Schema Questionnaire –Research Version, together with a check list for the negative/positive emotions and for faith in the future as a barometer for mental health, which we applied to a sample of 100 people from Latin America, Spain and Italy. During the observation period the sample reveals a number of maladaptive schemas triggering prior to, at the onset and a month into the lockdown. Besides that, we could see people perceiving themselves as optimistic and safety-aware, while in reality they were feeling helpless, uncertain, confused and sad. We concluded that the important thing is to identify the maladaptive schemas triggered during the lockdown and find effective coping styles.

About the Presenters:                   

Leticia Marin:

Leticia Marin is a psychologist and researcher. She graduated from La Sapienza University of Rome, Italy and from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She is an expert in ethnopsychiatry, transcultural and migration psychology, as well as specializing in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and Emergency Psychology. She is a member of the International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST). She’s currently being certified in Schema Therapy ISST. She has served on the John Carroll University in Rome, Pontifical Gregorian University, Barcelona University and Loyola University Chicago Rome. She has exercised in Mexico and Italy and has a long experience in the formation and management of groups. Marin has coordinated the department of clinical psychology in different institutions in Mexico. She collaborated with Caritas in Rome, she coordinated the program of Psychology for migrants in Vatican Radio and various associations for migrants in Italy and Mexico. She designed and established the Department of Counseling and Psychological Service and the therapeutic groups of mixed  couples, adults and young Latin American people in Rome. She has published numerous scientific articles in essays and magazines specialized in Italy, Spain, Mexico and Argentina. She developed the Migratory Process Stress Questionnaire (MPSQ) based on the Schema Therapy.

Samantha Flores:

Samantha Flores is a physician specialized in neuropsychiatry. She has a Master´s Degree in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and she is a certified advanced schema therapist who who took the certification course in the New Jersey Schema Therapy Institute. 

She currently runs a private practice in psychiatry and psychotherapy. She works with a variety of diagnoses of psychiatric  and neuropsychiatric patients through medication and psychotherapy. She has a special interest in patients who suffer functional neurologic disorders and patients with chronic mental illness as well as personality disorders. She also teaches psychopharmacology to psychology students at the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara.