Everyone runs patterns. These are the deep, identity-level loops between what you believe, what you need, and how you react—often without even realizing it.

In this library, we’ve mapped those patterns back to their roots using Schema Therapy domains, core Lifetraps, and the ShiftGrit Limiting Belief Model—so you can trace the emotional logic behind your reactions and start changing them.

Schema Domains

We’ve grouped all identity-level patterns into 5 Schema Domains—each representing a core unmet need from early development.

Click each domain to explore its related Lifetraps and the limiting beliefs that drive them.

🔗 Disconnection and Rejection

The need to feel loved, safe, and accepted goes unmet—so the pattern becomes rejection-proofing.

Lifetraps in this Domain:

• Defectiveness/Shame

• Emotional Deprivation

• Social Isolation/Alienation

• Abandonment/Instability

• Mistrust/Abuse
  
  

🔗 Impaired Autonomy and Performance

When the world feels unsafe, overwhelming, or unpredictable—you stop trusting your own capacity.

Lifetraps in this Domain:

• Failure

• Dependence/Incompetence

• Vulnerability to Harm

• Enmeshment/Undeveloped Self
  
  

🔗 Impaired Limits

When boundaries, self-control, or reality-checks are inconsistent—we either overstep or implode.

Lifetraps in this Domain:

• Entitlement/Grandiosity

• Insufficient Self-Control
  
  

🔗 Other-Directedness

When you learn that your needs come second—you contort to keep others close, even at your own expense.

Lifetraps in this Domain:

• Subjugation

• Self-Sacrifice

• Approval-Seeking/Recognition-Seeking
  
  

🔗 Overvigilance and Inhibition

When safety depends on control—emotion, spontaneity, and rest become threats.*

Lifetraps in this Domain:

• Unrelenting Standards

• Negativity/Pessimism

• Emotional Inhibition

• Punitiveness
  
  

How These Patterns Are Used in Therapy

Each of these schema categories links to a working pattern we treat directly in therapy.
These patterns are not abstract—they’re mappable, observable loops between:

• Core Belief

• Non-Nurturing Elements

• Pressure Cooker

• Opt-Out Behaviours
  
  

This structure allows us to recondition not just behaviour, but the why behind it.
Click any pattern to see the beliefs involved and how the ShiftGrit Method targets it.

Ready to explore?

• Browse Patterns by Name

• See the initial 44 Core Beliefs Mapped to Schema

• Understand How Patterns Work

• How We Recondition Patterns

ShiftGrit Growth Studio - Mount Royal

ShiftGrit Growth Studio - Westmount

Explore our Therapy Glossary of Defined Terms — a structured reference for key concepts that underpin pattern-based therapy and the ShiftGrit Core Method.