ABSTRACT
core belief revealed at the stage of identifying automatic thoughts, the therapist wants to learn if the client realizes she has revealed a core belief and knows of its presumed importance in maintaining emotional problems; and if she does realize its importance, is she ready, willing and able to work on it now or does she want to postpone schema work until she has acquired some CBT skills by working first on surface thoughts. Generally speaking, schema work is usually carried out later than earlier in CBT because 'it thought that challenging a patient's beliefs too early in therapy will be counter-productive as the patient may feel threatened and resist change'. However, with clients who have personality disorders, the identification and change of long-standing rigid core beliefs starts early in therapy as these beliefs activated in a range of situations and are the near-permanent outlook of such clients. As Davidson says: 'Core beliefs are the automatic thoughts in personality disorder'.
