Schema Workshop

A partial list of course contents:

(This program is co-sponsored by Applied Metapsychology International (AMI) and TIR UK. AMI is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to offer continuing education for psychologists. AMI maintains responsibility for the program.)

The Schema Program

As an example of expanding the theory, I'd like to talk a bit about a tool we have been developing in England which we call "The Schema Program".

Self-help or therapeutic activity creates ideally a potential for change, followed by a change itself. Unfortunately, it doesn't always result in actual change. By this, I mean that viewing, or therapy, or other growth activities create a change in the individual's way of seeing and interpreting his world. This change doesn't necessarily become manifest in the physical world or in the other worlds he shares with his partner, family, workmates, or friends. His behavior may not change; habit patterns may persist. Having handled and fulfilled past goals, he may not have new ones to work towards. There may be an interaction effect in a relationship in which a reaction on one person's part provokes a reaction on the others and so on. Many techniques have been developed in the course of standard psychology's efforts to address and handle such occasionally intractable behavior patterns: conduct of one sort or anther exhibited but not desired by clients. In fact entire theories like behaviorism have been developed to do so. In behavioral theory, the only area considered important to address is the person's present behavior.

In Metapsychology as well, a variety of techniques have been used to address these issues. Patterns of behavior the client doesn't like in himself will and do change with facilitation an astonishingly high percentage of the time, but that result is not produced inevitably, even with viewing. Steve [Bisbey] and I have spent a good deal of time looking at this and have developed the Schema Program as an addition to facilitation in order to handle this problem. The Schema Program facilitates problem solving, behavior change, and goal setting. When we use it with a client, we have her describe, fully, where she feels she is (A), and where she wants to be (B), and then we help her to plan a detailed program to get from A to B. In the course of planning such a program, previously unrecognized personal "policies" and negative modi operandi - patterns of behavior that cause difficulty - often come to light. In the course of doing the Schema Program, we address these modi operandi and work with the viewer in developing plans that enable her to change these patterns and adopt new and more workable strategies.

We also use specific techniques to deal with specific areas such as romantic relationships, substance abuse, weight loss and maintenance, and family difficulties. [The Bisbeys gave a two-hour workshop on the Schema Program later during the conference, the tape of which is available through the Institute. - Ed.]

For an overview of Schema, please read The Metapsychology Schema Coaching Approach by Henry Whitfield.