ISST Policy on National / Regional Reviewers

1.       Definition, qualifications and responsibilities

A National or Regional Reviewer is an ISST certified Trainer who has volunteered to be a representative of the ISST for a specific country or region of the world.  A National Reviewer acts for a single country, while a Regional Reviewer acts for several countries usually in the same geographic region. As a National Reviewer or Regional Reviewer, the individual accepts responsibility for reviewing all documents submitted by members in support of their application for certification as a Schema Therapist at the Standard or Advanced level in any of the certification categories (Individual, Couple, Child and Adolescent, Group).  The National/Regional reviewer is also responsible for reviewing applications for certification at the Supervisor and Trainer levels, but the procedures for this are not included in this document. The National/Regional Reviewer (hereafter referred to as “the Reviewer”) must therefore be familiar with the ISST’s guidelines and regulations that govern the certification process and also with the laws and professional regulations of the country in which the applicant resides with respect to licensing for the practice of psychotherapy.

2.       Ethical aspects

In order to limit conflict of interest and dual relationships, in the cases of countries where there is more than one Reviewer, applications and materials from one Reviewer’s students, supervisees or clients should be submitted to another Reviewer.

Reviewers must act with impartiality and integrity and must not allow themselves to be inappropriately influenced in the discharge of their responsibilities. They must act within the ISST’s code of conduct, and may, of course, not accept money or other inducements from applicants. If found to have behaved unethically, they will be relieved of their position as Reviewer and the Ethics and Conflict Resolution Committee will be asked to investigate the matter and make a recommendation which could include temporary suspension from the Society or expulsion.

3.       National Guidelines with respect to who may be certified

The ISST has already published guidelines for several countries with respect to which professionals in that country are entitled to apply for certification, and in these cases, the Reviewer must be familiar with the relevant document. For countries where the ISST does not yet have such guidelines with respect to who is entitled to apply for certification, the Reviewer should encourage the National Training Director or the National Training Director’s Committee to prepare such a document as a matter of urgency and to submit it to the ISST for consideration. Where this has not yet been done, a decision with respect of the eligibility of any applicant must be made jointly by the Certification and Training Coordinators of the ISST.

4.       Submission of applications

Applicants need to submit the following comprehensive documentation:

a.       Evidence of attendance at schema therapy training courses showing the required 40 hours of training and the required content have been covered.  This should be in the form of one or more certificates signed by the trainer(s).

b.       A letter of confirmation from the supervisor(s) with respect to the total number of hours of supervision that have been received and the date range from the beginning to supervision to the present. Where some or all the supervision is in a group, the total hours, calculated by the set formula, must be stated. Where there has been more than one supervisor, independent letters from each must be submitted.

c.       The evaluation forms for the session recording and for the case conceptualization, as completed and signed by the evaluator, for each case that has been evaluated and is now being submitted as part of the requirements for certification.

d.       The clients whose sessions were submitted for evaluation need to be clients whose cases were supervised as part of the above supervision. Confirmation of this from the supervisor is required for each recording that has been evaluated

e.       Information about the number of cases treated with schema therapy.  This includes, for each client:  initials, diagnosis, a brief summary of the main modes, and the number of treatment sessions and confirmation from the supervisor who supervised each case.

f.        Professional training records including certificates for the professional degree (Masters or PhD) and evidence of the accreditation or license to practice issued by the relevant professional body as specified in the National guidelines (see paragraph 2 above).

g.       Where more than 3 years have passed since the applicant completed the basic training course, the applicant must submit documentary evidence of 6 Continuing Professional Development credits in schema therapy for each subsequent year. These CPD hours can be achieved either by further supervision hours, attending Advanced Schema therapy workshops with an accredited ISST supervisor or trainer (not pre-recorded) or presenting to an ISST Special Interest Group (up to 3 hours).

h.       The application form (which must be the latest version, and which can be downloaded from the website or completed directly on-line) completed correctly and signed by the applicant.

5.       Processing applications for certification

a.       The national reviewer must acknowledge receipt of the application to the applicant and inform them of the 30 day time scale to conclude the process.

b.       The Reviewer should thoroughly check the entire documentation submitted (as summarized above in section 3).

c.       If the documentation is incomplete, The Reviewer should inform the applicant about what is missing and request that the application be resubmitted to comply with ISST requirements within this 30 days time period.

d.       The candidate along with other relevant parties must respond promptly to the request for this information so as not to delay the application process.   If all clarifications regarding the request for completed information is not responded to by the candidate and relevant parties within the 30 days then the reviewer must inform the candidate that they will need to resubmit their application once all the additional information has been received and included in the new application documents.

e.       Where the applicant has not met the criteria for certification at the level applied for, The Reviewer should draw the applicant’s attention to this and inform the applicant with respect to where the application fails to meet requirements.

f.        Where there is uncertainty with respect to b or c above, the Reviewer should consult with the Certification Coordinator.

g.       Where the Reviewer is satisfied that the applicant has submitted the required documentation in order and that the applicant meets the requirements for certification at the level applied for, the Reviewer should submit to the Certification Coordinator ONLY the application form from the applicant and the Reviewer’s check-list, completed and signed, to the following e-mail address: certification@isst-schemasociety.org

6.       Processing applications for specialties

The applications for specialties will be reviewed by the chair of the specialty committee (Group ST, CA ST, Couple ST and Auxiliary ST) according to these guidelines and also to the specific requirements.

In the case a person is not already certified at an individual level and their application forms and papers have never been reviewed by the National Coordinator, the specialty chair must consult the National Coordinator responsible for the applicant, to make sure that the applicant meets academic and licensing criteria in the country where they are living and/or practicing.