Schema Therapy (ST) was originally developed by Jeffrey Young in order to address the shortcomings of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) in working with people with long-standing difficulties, often described as Personality Disorders.   It combines theories and strategies from CBT, object relations theory, attachment theory, ego states, Gestalt and behaviour therapy.  Young incorporated EMDR into ST in 2002, in an chapter “EMDR and Schema Therapy: the Whole may be Greater than the Sum of the Parts”.

Many studies show ST to be effective even with all the most challenging personality disorders including Borderline, Antisocial, Narcissistic and Obsessive-Compulsive PDs.