Enabling healing instead of managing symptoms

An integrative schema therapy framework for the treatment of severe mental illness

Abstract

Severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia-related syndromes pose significant challenges to treatment, care, and prevention. Despite a wide range of available interventions, a unifying framework that integrates therapeutic, institutional, and societal levels is often lacking. This article proposes a schema therapy-based and metapsychologically expanded understanding that incorporates a structure-oriented perspective, current neurobiological research, and key principles of emotion-focused psychotherapy (ISTDP, EDT). The central focus is on strengthening the Healthy Adult Mode as a therapeutic goal. In addition to clinical treatment, the paper highlights the importance of preventive approaches – with reference to ACEs, the ICF framework, and transdiagnostic perspectives on care. The article advocates for a coordinated, humanistic, and evidence-based understanding of psychological healing.