Addressing the punitive parent mode in schema therapy for borderline personality disorder: Short-term effects of the empty chair technique as compared to cognitive challenging.

Background And Objectives: In Schema Therapy (ST) for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) patients the empty chair technique (EC) is often used to diminish the 'punitive parent mode' (PP). The present study is a first attempt to assess whether EC is more effective in reducing the PP than a standard Cognitive Behavioral Therapy technique (CT).

Methods: We utilized a counterbalanced, crossover design comparing one EC session to one CT session in twenty patients with a primary BPD diagnosis who had started ST.