Combining Schema Therapy and Guided Imagery and Music

Abstract

Schema therapy (ST) is a third wave Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and is used for the treatment of personality disorder, chronic depression and eating disorders amongst others. One goal is to evoke emotions and to regulate them. The techniques that are used are imagery rescripting, chair dialogue and standard cognitive behavioural techniques. Core elements in Guided Imagery and Music (GIM) are interactive music-activated imagery (images experienced by the five senses, body sense, memories, emotions and possibly transpersonal imagery). By combining these two treatments, the patients’ experiences and the treatment efficacy overall might be enhanced. The aim of this article is to introduce ST and to inform readers about similarities between the treatments and resulting combination possibilities. The author describes the combination of treatments in a client with chronic pain. The findings and future developments are discussed. As this combination has never been described before and only one case report is given in this article, no conclusions can be drawn. Further studies are needed to investigate the efficacy of this potential combination.