Emotional Schema Therapy

Over decades of practice of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), Robert L. Leahy has made important discoveries about the role that beliefs and expectations about emotions play in psychopathology. This book presents innovative tools for helping patients to understand their emotional schemas--such as the conviction that painful feelings are unbearable, shameful, or will last indefinitely--and develop new ways of accepting and coping with affective experience. Therapists can integrate emotional schema therapy into the treatment approaches they already use to add a vital new dimension to their work. Rich case material illustrates applications for a wide range of clinical problems; assessment guidelines and sample worksheets and forms further enhance the book's utility.

Robert L. Leahy, PhD, is Director of the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy in New York and Clinical Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. His research focuses on individual differences in theory of emotion regulation. Dr. Leahy is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Cognitive Therapyand is past president of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, the International Association for Cognitive Psychotherapy, and the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. He is the 2014 recipient of the Aaron T. Beck Award from the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. Dr. Leahy has published numerous books, including, most recently, the coauthored volumesTreatment Plans and Interventions for Bulimia and Binge-Eating Disorder; Treatment Plans and Interventions for Depression and Anxiety Disorders, Second Edition; andEmotion Regulation in Psychotherapy.