Dialogue between the client-centered and schema therapies

Abstract

We aim to introduce a theoretical and comparative dialogue between Carl Rogers' client-centered therapy and Jeffrey Young's schema therapy. Initially, we present the bibliographic methodological planning to achieve this dialogue. Later, we describe its main concepts and clinical operations. Next, we establish approximations and distances. The interlocution points found were: the use/non-use of diagnosis in the personality treatment; attention to the therapist's processes as influential in dynamic therapeutic; the question of empathic support in terms of understanding and confrontation; the directivity and non-directivity in therapeutic posture; similarity among the phenomenological field and schema concepts; the notions of self; the self-defense modes; the importance of affections and emotions in clinical interventions; ways to achieve a therapeutic re-signification. We conclude with the observation that client-centered therapy left a legacy that served as a reference for some cognitive and behavioral psychotherapeutic approaches.