1st Edition
Neuro-affirming Approaches in Schema Therapy Working Affirmatively with Neurodevelopmental Differences
SECTION 1 Introduction
Chapter 1 – Introducing Schema Therapy
Holly Kahya
Chapter 2 – Understanding Neurodiversity, Neurodivergence & Neurodevelopmental Differences
Holly Kahya
Chapter 3 – What is Trauma?
Holly Kahya
Chapter 4 – Neurodivergent Mental Health and Trauma
Holly Kahya & Liam Spicer
SECTION 2 Introduction
Chapter 5 – Neurodivergent transition to adulthood: AuDHD challenges and the way forward
Olga Dobrushina
Chapter 6 – Remaining autism affirming while setting limits with over-compensatory modes
Erin Bulluss & Rachel Samson
Chapter 7 – Culture & Neurodivergence: The Weight of Words
Beatrice Ng-Kessler & Holly Kahya
Chapter 8 – “Wah wrong wid yuh?”: Re-writing narratives of Black Jamaican masculinity, neurodivergence and mental health in Schema Therapy
Holly Kahya & Mavin Blake
Chapter 9 – Neuroqueering schema therapy with ADHD individuals: Healing schemas, embracing authenticity, and creating self-compassion
Liam Spicer
Chapter 10 – “It’s not too late”: Helping parents build reparative relational environments for their autistic teens using a schema therapy informed framework
Sarah Pagdin
Chapter 11 – STAND Attuned: Schema Therapy Affirming Neurodivergence
Emma DeCicco & Alyssa Garrett
Chapter 12 – Rethinking PDA: A Conceptual Synthesis and Practice Implications
Emma DeCicco
Chapter 13 – Concluding Thoughts: Micro to Macro - The Personal Becomes Political
Holly Kahya
Glossary
Biography
Dr Holly Kahya, DPsych, CPsychol, is a chartered counselling psychologist and advanced certified schema therapist, specialising in complex trauma and neurodivergence. She is a senior lecturer at City St George’s University of London, where she created and teaches a new specialist module on Neuropsychology, Neurodiversity and Psychometrics. Holly is co-editor of the Schema Therapy Bulletin, the thrice-yearly publication of the International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST) and is currently working towards certification as an accredited schema therapy supervisor.
“This is a timely, thoughtful, and much-needed contribution to schema therapy. Holly Kahya and her contributors extend the model in ways that remain faithful to its clinical foundations while offering a developmentally informed, relational, and genuinely neuroaffirmative framework for understanding and working with neurodivergent clients. It will be of real value to clinicians seeking to work more accurately, compassionately, and effectively with complexity, trauma, and neurodivergence.”
- Dr Alp Karaosmanoğlu, Advanced Schema Therapy Trainer and Supervisor, Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist
“A first-of-its-kind and deeply important contribution, this book brings together leading experts to reimagine schema therapy through a genuinely neuroaffirmative lens. A treasure trove of clinical insight, lived experience and theoretical depth, it offers an essential framework for working with neurodivergent clients.”
- Dr Susan Simpson, Clinical Psychologist (HCPC, UK), Certified Schema Therapist (Individual & Group), ISST Accredited Trainer & Supervisor, Director, Schema Therapy Training Scotland, Associate Fellow, British Psychological Society
“It is an absolute privilege to introduce this important and thoughtful work, which I consider a must have for all schema therapists.”
- Dr Rob Brockman, President - International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST), Sydney Australia
