The Effectiveness of Schema Therapy on Ambivalence in Emotional Expression and Mentalization in Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder

The present study was conducted with the aim of the effectiveness of schema therapy on Ambivalence in emotional expression and Mentalization in Patients with borderline personality disorder in Shiraz city in 2019.

The research method was semi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design with control and follow-up groups. The statistical population of the research was made up of all people with borderline personality disorder who referred to counseling centers in Shiraz, and among them, 50 people were randomly selected in the experimental group (25 people in each group) and the control group ( 25 people) were appointed. The experimental group received 12 sessions of 60 minutes using schema therapy and the control group remained on the waiting list. The tools used in this research include borderline personality questionnaire (Claridge and Brooks, 1984), ambivalence in emotional expression (King and Emmons, 1990) and mentalization (Fonagy, 1991) to were rejected (Downey and Feldman, 1996). The analysis of the information obtained from the implementation of the questionnaire was carried out in two descriptive and inferential parts (variance analysis with repeated measurements).

The results showed that schema therapy training has an effect on the components of ambivalence in emotional expression (positive emotion expression, intimacy expression and negative emotion expression) of people with borderline personality disorder. Schema therapy training has an effect on the mentalization of people with borderline personality disorder.

According to the findings of the present study, schema therapy can be suggested as an effective method to improve ambivalence in emotional expression and mentalization of patients with borderline personality disorder.