Tarja Koffert
Tarja Koffert is a Cognitive Psychotherapy and Family Therapy Trainer in upper Specialized Level. She has a Degree of Adviser in Organizational Development. She has a Group ST Certification (advanced level). She has worked in a psychiatric hospital in the 80’s, and 90’s in the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health in Finland. Since the beginning of the year 2000, she has had her own practice where she has used photographing and videotaping in therapy work over fifteen years, first only in the individual therapy but lately with Schema therapy groups. Currently she works partly as a private psychotherapist and partly in the University of Turku, Finland. Her assignment is to write digitalized cognitive behavioral therapy intervention for depression. She is also a non-fiction writer in Finland.
Increasing mode awareness whit patients’ home- made videos in Group Schema Therapy
Co-Presented with Jari Peltomaa
At the University of Turku, we have studied the use of visual material, especially video, as a facilitator of psychotherapy (Koffert et al. 2019). We have named the method VideoTalk (VT). In the method, patients take videos at home in different emotional situations with the therapist’s precise instructions for the next therapy session. Video recording at home is important because when patients are alone, symptoms are more likely to be activated. On the videotape, the patient speaks out the thoughts that come to mind around the theme at present. Next, they watch the video in therapy session and pay attention to their emotional state, their bodily reactions, their tone of voice, their way of thinking and how they talk about the situation that is problematic for them. Patients’ experiences of the work have been positive (Nordström et al. 2021). The Group Schema Therapy (GST) model of program is theoretically consistent with the model and theory of ST as developed by Young and later Farrell & Shaw (Young et al. 2003; Farrell & Shaw 2012). We combined the individual VT treatment program to GST context and run a group with eight BPD patients. Patient videotaped at home their modes which were watched in the group.Video Talk method is an observational tool in Schema Therapy group for observing modes. Patients videotape their mode states at home according to the treatment program. The aim is making observations from the videotape of patient’s internal experience and understand more the causal impacts of experience. The videos are watched in the group sessions where the patient identifies the schema, coping styles and pattern of emotions and behaviors that results of schema. The video expands the number of the patient’s observations, bringing out the reactions caused by the negative schema, which appear in the video image as bodily changes, making the mode’s harmfulness concrete. The patient must understand the ways in which the schema distorts the way in which he/she sees the world. The Video Talk method provides a platform where to combine observations of hearing, vision, and bodily signals. Link them to cognitions and spoken language on the video. Video gives feedback of the impact of schema which can be used in group discussions to build a Healthy Adult mode. This video-assisted communication between the internal and outside world gives an opportunity to observe how modes are affecting in experiences. It will also socialize group members for new observation from the other group members videos.
Our presentation presents the interventions of VT-model for mode interventions in GST. and preliminary treatment results and discuss the treatment method.