Workshop Contents

• Assessing and reconstructing the maladaptive interpersonal schemas

• Increasing metacognition, that is awareness of mental states of both the self and the others

• Once a shared formulation of the interpersonal schemas is completed, the procedures will focus on how to promote change. One turning point is the achievement of metacognitive differentiation or critical distance from own maladaptive interpersonal schemas, in parallel to experiential access to healthy self.

• Procedures include experiential and behavioral techniques (guided imagery and rescripting, two-chair work and sensorimotor exercises).

• How to prevent and repair ruptures in the therapy relationship and how to metacommunicate, that is reflect jointly on the therapy relationship in order to both improve patients’ awareness of own functioning and create an environment where jointly thinking on mental states of both the participants in the relationship is safe.

In order to better illustrate experiential techniques, role-played simulations where real therapy excerpts are re-enacted will be presented.