Schema Therapy and the use of Politeness Plural in Greek-speaking populations: a need for cultural adaptation or a quest for early maladaptive schemas/modes?

Abstract

This paper is clinical practice-based, and examines the Greek cultural linguistic schema of Politeness Plural in the application of the Schema Therapy mode model. The philosophical principles of Schema Therapy and the importance the model ascribes on creating a warm therapist–client relationship as a pre-requisite for schema healing are discussed. We further explore the need for the therapist to be culturally sensitive to the linguistic use of Politeness Plural in Greek-speaking populations. We are looking into the reasons of why, whilst culturally sensitive, a schema therapist needs to remain inquisitive of potential maladaptive and/or internalized dysfunctional coping mechanisms of inter-relating that are masked by the use of the Politeness Plural linguistic schema. The implications the cultural linguistic schema of Politeness Plural can have in the therapy outcome are considered. Specifically, we argue that holding on to the Politeness Plural cultural linguistic schema may reinforce emotional distancing and compromise schema healing. The authors identify the need for more research to further understand the issues that are raised in this article. Although the focus of the article is on Greek populations, the matters under consideration may be valuable to other cultures.

Early Maladaptive Schemas and Depression in Caregivers of Individuals With Schizophrenia Spectrum and Bipolar Disorders

“…The small sample size, while larger than previous studies of schemas in caregivers of those with SMI, limits the statistical power of these findings. The inability to recruit non‐English‐speaking caregivers due to limitations in translating study measures may hinder generalisation to different cultures, particularly as prior literature posits that the formation of schemas can be influenced by cultural experiences and expressions (Kolonia, Tsartsara, and Giakoumaki 2019; Moghaddam and Jomehri 2016). The cross‐sectional study design limits the assessment of how activated schema profiles may change over time in response to changing care demands.…”

Cultural adaptations of CBT: a summary and discussion of the Special Issue on Cultural Adaptation of CBT

“…Schema Therapy and the use of Politeness Plural in Greek-speaking populations: a need for cultural adaptation or a quest for early maladaptive schemas/modes? (Kolonia et al, 2019) This paper examines the Greek cultural, linguistic schema of Politeness Plural in the application of a Schema Therapy mode model. The authors argue that holding on to the 'Politeness Plural linguistic schema' may reinforce emotional distancing and might compromise schema healing.…”

“…There is (a) one systematic review of CBT for social anxiety among the culturally diverse population (Jankowska, 2019). There are (b) seven articles covering different aspects of adaptation of therapies for diverse populations which include: culturally adapted family intervention using case studies (Berry et al , 2018), a discussion of maladaptive schema and schema therapy in the context of Greek culture (Kolonia et al , 2019), use of a transdiagnostic intervention in low resource countries (Murray et al , 2019), application of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) with a Turkish population in London (Perry et al , 2019), a framework to culturally adapt CBT (Rathod et al , 2019), a case report of family-based CBT for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) from Saudi Arabia (Alatiq and Alrshoud, 2018) and a paper discussing CBT in military culture (Zwiebach et al , 2019). Three papers (c) address the issues of gender and sexuality.…”