Effectiveness of Contextual Schema Therapy for Extreme Perfectionism and Emotion Regulation in Individuals with Perfectionism Disorder

Background: Individuals are consistently influenced by ineffective core beliefs known as maladaptive schemas that develop during childhood and can pave the way for the appearance of problems such as extreme perfectionism. Therefore, therapeutic approaches are needed that can be effective for these schemas. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of contextual schema therapy (CST) on perfectionism and emotion regulation in individuals with perfectionism disorder. Methods: In this study, 12 individuals diagnosed with perfectionism disorder visiting the psychological service centers in Tehran in 2022 were purposively selected for this quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, mid-test, and post-test design. The participants underwent CST in 40 one-hour sessions and completed the Positive and Negative Perfectionism Scale and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire in all three stages of the assessment. The data were analyzed using the repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) in SPSS-26. Results: The mean and standard deviation (SD) of perfectionism in the pre-test, mid-test, and post-test phases were 151.08 ± 18.97, 94.25 ± 12.48, and 67.58 ± 5.41, respectively. Moreover, the mean ± SD of emotion regulation in the pre-test, mid-test, and post-test phases were 40.25 ± 8.95, 45.50 ± 8.12, and 50.08 ± 7.94, respectively. The results demonstrated that the CST was effective for perfectionism across all assessment stages (P < 0.001); however, this influence was not significant for emotion regulation during the mid-test stage. Conclusions: Contextual schema therapy led to a reduction in extreme perfectionism and an improvement in emotion regulation in individuals with perfectionism. It is suggested that CST be applied in psychological service centers to reduce perfectionism and emotion regulation strategies in clients.