Clinical Skills
The micro-skills underneath the orientations — the actual moves in your hands. Browse by category, see how to execute, when to reach for it, and the mistakes that undo it.
Filtered: Schema Therapy
Cognitive
Experiential
Cognitive
Imagery Rescripting
Rescripting distressing memory images to introduce a new, protective outcome.
What it is
A Schema/CBT technique where the client revisits a painful childhood memory in imagination, then the therapist (or the adult self) enters the scene to provide protection, validation, or rescue the child self. Changes the emotional meaning, not just the cognition.
How to do it
- 1Identify a core memory linked to a maladaptive schema or belief
- 2Have the client close their eyes and vividly imagine the scene from the child's perspective
- 3Let the affect build briefly
- 4Introduce a rescripting figure — the adult self, a trusted person, or the therapist — into the image
- 5The figure intervenes: stops the harm, comforts the child, meets the unmet need
- 6Shift perspective so the client views the scene from outside or from the adult self
- 7Process the emotional shift and any new meaning
When to use
- Schema Therapy with early memory work
- PTSD intrusions tied to shame or helplessness
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy when verbal restructuring stalls
When to avoid
- Severe dissociation without grounding first
- Recent acute trauma still destabilizing
- Client cannot generate imagery
Example lines
'Picture yourself at seven, being told you're stupid. Now imagine your adult self walking into that room. What does your adult self do?'
Common mistakes
- Rushing the rescript before affect builds
- Therapist imposing their own rescript rather than co-creating
- Skipping the processing of the emotional shift afterward