From Merging and Disconnection to Autonomy and Attachment: Understanding and Healing the Enmeshment/Undeveloped Self Schema

From Merging and Disconnection to Autonomy and Attachment: Understanding and Healing the Enmeshment/Undeveloped Self Schema

Trainer:  Jeff Conway, MS, LCSW

December 14, 2023

Start time:  11 am EST

End Time: 1 pm EST

2 hours

$59.99 Cdn

Location: ZOOM

Presented by: Schema Therapy Training Canada

Website: schematherapytrainingcanada.com

Clinical Director : Frances Miller MSW, RSW

EMAIL: fmiller.schemacda@gmail.com

DESCRIPTION :

The purpose of this Workshop is to engage in a deeper and more expansive exploration of the Enmeshment & Undeveloped Self Schema and to consider viable strategies and interactions for healing this Schema.  This is a powerful core Schema that is experienced by many therapy patients and perhaps several the therapists who work with them.  Unhealed, this Schema can be a deep pattern that undermines self-understanding, causes confusion, and provokes anxiety around forming close relationships and limits the ability to function in the world at full potential.  Attention will be given to the ways in which the Schema is engendered in the family system and the impact of cultural variables that help inculcate this Schema.  Emphasis will be placed on the 2 main unmet needs that foster Enmeshment and the Undeveloped Self: Attunement and Autonomy.  These 2 needs will be explored and discussed in terms of how they contribute to the development of a strong sense of self and that when these 2 needs are not adequately met, a person is likely to struggle with an “Undeveloped Self.”  We will consider how limited reparenting, a central way of being for a Schema Therapist, can help a person develop greater autonomy and a deeper awareness and value of one’s thoughts, emotions, and inclinations.

This workshop would be of interest for therapists who feel stalled or confused in their work with one or more patients as it will provide an alternative way to think about and interact with these patients.  It can also be helpful for anyone working with patients who struggle in their understanding interpersonal boundaries, struggle to maintain boundaries in their relationships and who challenge their therapists to manage comfortable boundaries.  Also provided will be strategies for healing this Schema and weakening Modes that perpetuate the Schema while strengthening the Modes that help dissipate this Schema.  Special highlight will be given to the leveraging of the therapeutic relationship in the service of Schema healing and Mode change.  Finally, this could also be an opportunity for therapists to do some personal reflection on how the Enmeshment & Undeveloped Self Schema might be impacting their personal relationships and their professional clinical work and to consider personal applications for healing this very potent Schema.

BY THE END OF THIS WORKSHOP, PARTICIPANTS WILL BE ABLE TO:

1. How the unmet needs of autonomy and attunement contribute to the development of the Enmeshment and Undeveloped Self Schema.
2. List three family roles that contribute to the development of the Enmeshment and Undeveloped Self Schema.
3. Describe two Schema Therapy Emotion-focused interventions that help heal the Enmeshment and Undeveloped Self Schema.
4. Describe two therapeutic relationship interventions that address the Enmeshment and Undeveloped Self Schema.