News

Ready to Inspire Us? New Deadlines to Submit Your Proposal for INSPIRE 2016 ISST Vienna Conference With the holiday season fast approaching, we want you to have a little extra time to submit your proposal to present at the INSPIRE 2016 ISST Vienna Conference on June 30 - July 2, 2016. The conference theme is: "What is it with Modes? The Transdiagnostic Power of Mode Work in Schema Therapy."  Using our online portal, the process to submit your proposal is easy to complete. Take a few minutes to review the instructions, and submit your proposal before the deadlines pass. New Deadlines for Submissions: December 15, 2015: proposals for pre-conference workshops  January 20, 2016: proposals for panels, symposia, hot-topic talks, case discussions, workshops, and poster presentations For directions to submit your proposals, visit: SUBMISSIONS

— VIENNA CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENTS —

Young Investigator Award Announced The ISST Board invites submissions for the 1st Biennial Young Investigator Award. The recipient of the award will receive a certificate and a cash prize of €1000. The award will be based upon a presentation (poster, symposium talk, or hot topic talk) to be presented in the Vienna 2016 ISST conference, as well as on evidence of engagement in a program of research that is consistent with the mission of ISST and holds a promise of developing theoretical or practical applications that represent clear advances to the field. The work should eventually take the form of independent or collaborative work published in high-impact journals, competitive grant support, etc. Submissions should include the following: Submission of a poster, symposium talk, or hot topic talk which includes designation that the submitter is interested in being considered for the Young Investigator Award. This is done through the regular submission portal. Concurrent with the submission (i.e., by the January 20, 2016 deadline), all candidates for the Award shall send a Curriculum Vitae (CV) to the conference email address: EMAIL   Candidates must be within their graduate (or post-graduate) training, or no more than 10 years after the completion of the terminal degree in their field (e.g., PhD, MD) Keynote Speakers Announced  Schema Modes: Bridging Clinical Practice and Scientific Research by Arnoud Arntz Harnessing a Sturdy and Effective Empathically Attuned Caregiver Mode in the Treatment Room by Wendy Behary From what you see to what you need -- towards an Interpersonal Schema Therapy by Eckhard Roediger Self-States: What they are, what they aren't by Richard Chefetz  Whole Trait Theory: How personality changes across hours, and symptoms along with it by Will Fleeson Integrative Themes in Psychotherapy  by Marvin Goldfried

— ADDITIONAL NEWS & WEBSITE POSTINGS —

Schema Therapy for the Aged: an Interview with Bruce Stevens Do you apply schema therapy for the aged with clients or patients? If so, you will want to watch Bruce Stevens discuss his latest endeavours in the field of schema therapy. Bruce shares about his prior experiences with schema therapy, including schema couples therapy and his latest publication, Schema Therapy with Couples, co-authored with Chiara DiFrancesco and Eckhard Roediger. He previews an upcoming book he is working on involving emotional learning and schema therapy about relationships, and lays out his initial experiences in the speciality area of the aged population. Watch: BRUCE STEVENS Join the "Members Only" schema therapy for the aged forum: FORUM

Upcoming Schema Therapy Events December 5: Advanced methods using empathic confrontation in schema therapy by Neele Reiß and Friederike Vogel in Mainz, Germany December 12: Schema therapy basic techniques III with Alp Karaosmanoglu in Istanbul, Turkey December 12: Supervision workshop in schema therapy with Igor Nenadic in Mainz, Germany December 14: Schema couples therapy interest group meeting online January 15-16: Introduction to schema therapy with Neele Reiß and Friederike Vogel in Mainz, Germany January 18: Schema couples therapy interest group meeting online January 21: Introduction to group schema therapy with Joan Farrell and Ida Shaw in Kongsvinger, Norway January 27-29: Advanced training in group schema therapy with Ida Shaw and Joan Farrell in Copenhagen, Denmark View more schema therapy events on the website: EVENTS Sponsoring an event that is not yet listed on the website?  SUBMIT EVENTS Created by Travis Atkinson, ISST Board Public Affairs Coordinator. Send questions or comments to: EMAIL

Join the conversation: daily updates on ISST social media 

Have you been following ISST on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+? Top articles from the web related to schema therapy topics are posted each day, and you don't want to miss out. Recent posts include:

• What can cause depression? 9 surprising answers
• What do love and alcohol have in common?
• Is narcissism always bad?
• How can meditation affect your brain?
• How do you cool down after being angry?
• Is ketamine the next big depression drug?
• What is so alluring about competing against other people?
• Can you spot a narcissist?
• Do you know the latest research about anxiety?

Joining the conversation is simple: just click on your favorite social media icon now.

Combined Group and Individual Schema Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder

by Veronique Dickhaut and Arnoud Arntz

In the latest blog from ISST Board Research and Science Coordinator Eshkol Rafaeli, the two guest authors, Veronique Dickhaut and Arnoud Arntz, describe the development of a combined group and individual Schema Therapy (ST) protocol for the treatment of patients suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder, and the results of a pilot study based on that protocol. Patients who received combined group/individual ST showed greater improvement in comparison with those who received solely individual ST. Notably, these patients reached happiness levels almost equivalent to those found in the general population. The blog concludes with an outline of the currently-running group ST international RCT. BPD TREATMENT WITH SCHEMA THERAPY

INSPIRE 2016

What is it with Modes?

The Transdiagnostic Power of Mode Work in Schema Therapy

ISST Vienna Conference

June 30 - July 2, 2016

Planning for the INSPIRE 2016 ISST Conference in Vienna is underway, with the main theme of "What is it with Modes?" Keynote speakers are lining up, both from within and outside of the schema therapy community, to present ideas about the theme, and the planning committee invites the entire schema therapy community to submit proposals for workshops and other presentations. 

Deadlines for Submissions:

December 15, 2015: proposals for panels, symposia, hot-topic talks, case discussions, and workshops

January 20, 2016: proposals for poster presentations

For directions to submit your proposals, visit: SUBMISSIONS

Schema Therapy Bulletin October 2015: Schema Therapy in Healthcare Settings

This second issue of the Schema Therapy Bulletin, edited by Lissa Parsonnet and ISST Board Secretary Chris Hayes, focuses on the use of schema therapy with medically ill patients. Unlike in more traditional applications of the model, the primary focus of medically ill patients is on disease management or cure, and the relief of physical symptoms rather than on psychiatric symptoms, relationship issues or other psychosocial concerns.

Articles in this issue include:

• Using the Schema Therapy Model to Help Patients Cope with a Cancer Diagnosis by Lissa Parsonnet
• Schema Therapy in Medical Settings by Cesar A. Gonzalez
• Working with Patients who have Chronic Illness by Elizabeth Lacy
• Schema Therapy in Dermatology by Alexandra Mizara

​Visit the Schema Therapy Bulletin online now: STB

Upcoming Schema Therapy Events

• November 30: Group schema therapy for adolescents: 3-day training with Ida Shaw and Maria Galimzyanova in Amsterdam
• December 4: Advanced skills development in group schema therapy with Ida Shaw and Joan Farrell in Amsterdam
• December 5: Advanced methods using empathic confrontation in schema therapy by Neele Reiß and Friederike Vogel in Mainz
• December 12: Schema therapy basic techniques III with Alp Karaosmanoglu in Istanbul
• December 12: Supervision workshop in schema therapy with Igor Nenadic in Mainz
• December 14: Schema couples therapy interest group meeting online

View more schema therapy events on the website: EVENTS

Sponsoring an event that is not yet listed on the website?  SUBMIT EVENTS

Created by: Travis Atkinson, ISST Board Public Affairs & Member Benefits Coordinator. Send questions or comments to: EMAIL

International Society of Schema Therapy e.V. - ISST e.V

Glossop-Ring 35 

DE-61118 Bad Vilbel 

Germany

Copyright 2015 ISST e.V. All rights reserved. 

Visit us at www.SchemaTherapySociety.org

"Be the Change You Help Create"

Working with Fear and Conscience in Schema Therapy

An interview with Alp Karaosmanoglu

The creator of schematv, among many other projects in the schema therapy world, Alp Karaosmanoglu, discusses the connection between fear and conscience in schema therapy. Alp and his colleagues conducted a study of schema domains and core needs with three samples, each having hundreds of participating patients. The results found a connection between schema domains and Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs for love and belonging, esteem, and justice/security. The area of justice/security specifically is highly correlated with the schemas of vulnerability, mistrust, pessimism, and abandonment. Watch Alp explain the results of the study, and clinical implications that schema therapists can use in practice, such as emphasizing conscience more in working with the vulnerability schema. FEAR AND CONSCIENCE

The Influence of Depression on Treating Personality Disorders with Schema Therapy

by Fritz Renner, Lotte Bamelis, Marcus Huibers, Anne Speckens & Arnoud Arntz

Many patients with personality disorders also suffer from depression. However, little is known about the implications of such comorbidity for psychotherapy.  In this blog post, Fritz Renner, Lotte L.M. Bamelis, Marcus J.H. Huibers, Anne Speckens, and Arnoud Arntz explore these implications with data taken from their larger research program comparing schema therapy to other psychotherapy techniques. Depressed patients with personality disorder recovered less during psychotherapy than did non-depressed patients. However, when controlling for the general severity of symptoms, there were no differences between the groups. These outcomes indicate that patients are less likely to recover from their personality disorder when their overall symptom severity is high.  DEPRESSION

INSPIRE 2016

What is it with Modes?

The Transdiagnostic Power of Mode Work in Schema Therapy

ISST Vienna Conference

June 30 - July 2, 2016

Planning for the INSPIRE 2016 ISST Conference in Vienna is underway, with the main theme of "What is it with Modes?" Keynote speakers are lining up, both from within and outside of the schema therapy community, to present ideas about the theme, and the planning committee invites the entire schema therapy community to submit proposals for workshops and other presentations. 

Deadlines for Submissions:

December 15, 2015: proposals for panels, symposia, hot-topic talks, case discussions, and workshops

January 20, 2016: proposals for poster presentations

For directions to submit your proposals, visit: SUBMISSIONS

Do You Use Schema Therapy with the Aged? Join the Member Forum Hosted by Bruce Stevens

"From small seeds, great oaks grow!  I would like to begin a discussion on applying Schema Therapy to aged patients. This will include helping older people that Schema Therapy was developed to treat: those with chronic problems and personality disorders. Of course many schema therapists have already been working extensively in this area, so this will provide an opportunity to share what we have learned. What I would like to see develop is an on-line place to discuss cases and schema treatment with the aged. We can raise issues, such as hoarding with older people, or stages of dementia, and together find ways to apply schema therapy in effective ways. Maybe we can develop an interest group, eventually a schema therapy specialty such as group or couple or child/adolescent, and when the ‘oak’ has grown, possibly international research projects."

Reply to the latest forum posting:

A couple of people over 70 years-old present with quite complex issues, one with hoarding problems which are complicated by a rigid Christian perspective on life (including what is right and wrong).  Any ideas for using schema therapy for hoarding, especially with older patients?  

The second issue came out in treating a very active couple with a volatile relationship. The male has what has been called a "manic defense" in psychoanalysis (hyper-active, rates his mood as being "euphoric to very happy", but with periodic outbursts of irritability, even rage as would be typical with an extended manic-like mood). His personality structure is more neurotic, not PD, but I would be interested in ideas from schema therapy to understand the dynamic and treat it (in mode terms, seems a blend of Detached Self-Soother and maybe Irritable Protector). Any suggestions?

by Bruce Stevens 

Join the discussion on the Member Forum now:

FORUM FOR THE AGED 

The Member Forum is a platform accessible only by ISST members to discuss topics of interest. Similar to the listserv, the forum allows for a more specific focus on a topic. In addition to a forum for working with the aged, several other specialty area forums are available.

Review the options in the forum section of the website: FORUMS

Submit Your Blog: Share Your Story

Send us your insights and perspectives from your work, activities, and experiences as a clinician, researcher, educator, supporter, or fan of ISST to be posted on our member blog. Submit your blog now, and include a picture (.jpg format) to help other members become familiar with you, and if you have a web address, make sure to include it. This is one of the best ways to help others get to know you more, and one of the top ways to increase your search engine visibility. Plus, use ISST as a tool for you--we'll use our vast media network to help promote you as a member of ISST.

What to do?

• Submit a blog consisting of 500-1000 words
• I'll add a picture that complements your blog
• English not your primary language? No problem. I'll help edit your work
• The goal of a blog can be to inform, analyze, assist, or entertain

Give yourself a boost, help all ISST members, and share your story now:  SUBMIT

International Society of Schema Therapy e.V. - ISST e.V

Glossop-Ring 35 

DE-61118 Bad Vilbel 

Germany

Copyright 2015 ISST e.V. All rights reserved. 

Visit us at www.SchemaTherapySociety.org

"Be the Change You Help Create"

Schema Therapy Bulletin

October 2015: Schema Therapy in Healthcare Settings

This second issue of the Schema Therapy Bulletin focuses on the use of Schema Therapy with medically ill patients. Unlike in more traditional applications of the model, the primary focus of medically ill patients is on disease management or cure, and the relief of physical symptoms rather than on psychiatric symptoms, relationship issues or other psychosocial concerns.

Depression, anxiety, personality disorders, psychosocial stressors, and schema eruption, have the potential to impede or derail the adjustment to a medical diagnosis and treatment, and undermine optimal medical care. The clinicians writing in this issue have found schema therapy to be well suited to address psychosocial issues that arise from the diagnosis and treatment of medical illness.

This issue will also feature the first of our ongoing “Meet the ISST Board” column. Thanks to Vivian Francesco for spearheading this column and helping us all get to know the Board Members whose tireless work keeps the ISST vibrant, focused and growing.

Our next issue will focus on Schema Therapy with Couples.

Editors,

Lissa Parsonnet, PhD, LCSW (USA)

Chris Hayes, Clinical Psychologist (Australia)  

Please note: you must be enrolled on the ISST website to access the latest digital or pdf version of the Schema Therapy Bulletin. Go to STB to view the latest issue online, or download a pdf version: STB

Not yet enrolled? Visit: MEMBER LOGIN

Using the Schema Therapy Model to Help Patients Cope with a Cancer Diagnosis

by Lissa Parsonnet, PhD, LCSW

While nothing prepares a person for a diagnosis of cancer, one’s entire life experience prepares a person to cope with cancer or other serious illness. A cancer diagnosis can ignite feelings of fear, anxiety, confusion, anger, sadness and overwhelm. It also threatens a person’s identity as “healthy”, and catapults them into the new and unwanted identity of “cancer patient”. Webster’s on-line dictionary cites the origins of the word “patient” as the Latin word patiens, or the Greek word pema, meaning “to suffer” or “suffering”. How people adjust to this new identity of “sufferer”, will impact the medical care they seek and receive, the treatment decisions they make, and their emotional experience throughout the illness process. It will also impact their family and friends, as well their relationships with family, friends, colleagues and their health care team. CANCER DIAGNOSIS

Schema Therapy in Medical Settings

by Cesar A. Gonzalez

Schema theory posits that life experiences promote the development of adaptive and maladaptive schemas through conscious and non-conscious cognitive, affective, and somatic experiences and inform the perception of ourselves, the world, and our future. When our developmental needs are not met, the theory implies that we turn to conscious and non-conscious behaviors (whether adaptive or maladaptive) to promote survival in an attempt to meet our cognitive, affective, and somatic need for autonomy, relatedness, and competency. MEDICAL SETTINGS

Working with Patients who have Chronic Illness

by Elizabeth Lacy

Treating people who have chronic illnesses is challenging to say the least. Back when I was treating people with more traditional CBT, patients who were extremely sensitive to physical sensations and the threat, whether real or imagined, of serious illness would hit walls that seemed impenetrable with exposure therapies, cognitive reattribution or any other more traditional CBT. Schema Therapy helps break through the “walls” of shame and fear by offering more than cognitive-behavioral strategies.  By modelling and ultimately promoting the constructed enhancement of a healthy adult care-taking mode, changes occur deep at the root of the emotional system. The healthy adult facilitates the process of getting the core unmet needs of the vulnerable child (the one who implicitly experiences the longstanding shame and/or fear linked with early life issues) met, in an adaptive manner. Self-defeating patterns, and biased emotional beliefs gradually heal as schema links weaken, and become reorganized in the cotext of healthier and more effective outcomes. CHRONIC ILLNESS

Schema Therapy in Dermatology

by Alexandra Mizara

Skin disease is common, affecting approximately one quarter to one third of the UK population and represents the most frequent reason for people to consult their general practitioner. Despite their prevalence, the majority of dermatological conditions are often considered as ‘cosmetic’ or ‘non-life-threatening’ by the general public and the profound psychosocial impact that skin disease may exert on those affected is not often recognized. The role of psychological (di)stress in the onset, exacerbation and perpetuation of symptoms in skin diseases such as psoriasis, atopic eczema, acne, vitiligo, alopecia is now well established. DERMATOLOGY

An Update from Public Affairs: I have been working to improve the website since its launch last fall, and if you've seen the latest version, I think you'll be happy with the design and features. Thanks to many member contributors, we have several new and exclusive offerings, including: 

• SchemaTV with Alp Karaosmanoglu
• Schema Therapy Bulletin (STB)
• New Istanbul conference videos
• New Research and Science Blogs
• A new photo album feature added to your member profile

I have also been working in the background to help ISST in several ways:

• Daily social media posts (join us on facebook, twitter, and google+)
• Extensive outreach to members leading to nearly 75% enrollment on the website and listserv. Still need to enroll? Click ENROLL
• Ongoing analysis and comprehensive actions to optimize search engine results for the ISST website

See some of the latest news and events throughout the world of schema therapy, including a preview of the 6th Dutch Schema Therapy Congress in Amsterdam, in the segments below. Visit the website to find many ways to connect with other members in our schema therapy community, and learn more about trends in schema therapy.

Enjoy, 

Travis Atkinson

ISST Board Public Affairs Coordinator