Training Curriculum in Schema Therapy
Rakhawy Institute for Training and Research (RITR)
International Society for Schema Therapy (ISST)
Schema Therapy Institute East Switzerland (ISTOS)
Schema Therapy Diploma for Arabic Speaking Professionals
Training Curriculum in Schema Therapy
First workshop: August 10, 11, 12 2023
Second workshop: November 7, 8, 9 2023
Third Workshop: January 2024 11, 12, 13 2024
Time: 10 am to 3.45 pm
The certification process is only possible if participants attend all 3 workshops
Total training hours in the project: 40 hours
Instructor:
Christoph Fuhrhans M.D. ((Switzerland)
- Christoph studied medicine, philosophy, art history and comparative literature in Kiel, Vienna and Berlin.
- As a psychiatrist and psychotherapist he worked as a DBT trainer and since 2008 as Schema Therapist, Schema Therapy and Group Schema Therapy trainer and supervisor (ISST).
- He is the founder and leader of the “Schema Therapy Institute East Switzerland” and president of the Swiss Schema Therapy Network.
- International presentations and trainings, leader of the Schema Therapy certification training programs in Palestine (since 2018), Egypt (since 2020) and Tunisia (since 2022).
- His major regions of interest are psychotherapy and cultural sciences, current developments in psychotherapy (especially in trauma therapy) and Schema Therapy in Arab countries.
He lives and works in Winterthur/Switzerland
What is Schema Therapy?
Schema Therapy is a newly developed integrative psychotherapeutic method. Founded by Jeffrey E. Young, it is designed for the treatment of personality disorders and severe Axis 1 disorders, especially if they failed to respond after having gone through other therapies (for example standard CBT). It combines the best aspects of CBT with humanistic, interpersonal and psychoanalytic elements into one unified model. Schema Therapy spread rapidly in the therapeutic world within the last years, mostly because of its remarkable results. Several controlled studies and one meta analysis (Arntz et al.) showed that Schema Therapy shows significantly better results and has only one third of drop-outs compared to other inpatient or oupatient psychotherapies.
The core elements of Schema Therapy are the client’s unmet childhood needs. If a child’s emotional needs are repeatedly unfullfiled, the child develops self-defense strategies of beliefs, emotions and expectations about itself and the world, in order to survive the dysfunctional environment in the least painful way. These strategies become personality traits and are called Schemas.
The activated parts of Schemas are called Modes. By a very close and reparenting therapeutic relationship the therapist helps the client to successively realize and fullfill his/her unfulfilled emotional needs. Imagery Rescriping and Reprocessing of traumatic childhood experiences helps the client to get out of the „schema-traps“, to gradually take care for his Inner Child Mode and to overcome the dominace of Dysfunctional Coping Modes in daily life.
The planned Schema Therapy Curriculum consists of 3 basic workshops of 3 days each (ST1-ST3), all together 9 days.
Workshop 1:
Introduction into Schema Therapy:
Participants will learn about the principles of Schema Therapy: History of Schema Therapy, the central role of basic childhood needs, development and maintenance of early maladaptive schemas (EMS), the 18 maladaptive schemas. Correlation of schemas and schema-modes, introduction into the clinical working with schema-modes (“Mode Work”), overwiev over the 4 main intervention techniques and the course of a schema therapy.
Days in detail:
Day 1 What are the basic emotional needs? How do Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMS) develop and how are they maintained, how do they influence the adult life?
Day 2 The „Mode-Model“ of Inner Punitive Modes, Child Modes and Dysfunctional Coping Modes. How are they related to schemas? How does the client’s individual mode-model work? How to identify modes correctly
Day 3 The role of positive Schemas and how to use them, Case Conceptualization
___________________________________________________________
Methods: ppt-presentation, master role plays, small group exercises, video demonstrations, handouts.
Workshop 2:
Mode Work I – Imagery Work, Chairwork and Mode Dialogues:
Using imagination and imaginative rescripting techniques as a central intervention in Schema Therapy. Participants will learn about the correct timing, how to apply the technique itself in the right way in different variations and how to overcome typical obstacles. Participants will practice in small groups different kinds of imaginations including positive, resource-activating imaginations.
Participants will learn how to use chairwork as a very efficient emotion-activation technique for emotion activation and for change. Elements of this workshop are the correct timing, the different kinds of chairwork, the correct course of applying the technique and how to overcome typical obsticals.
Workshop 3
Working within the therapeutic relationship and Case Conceptualization, Schema Therapy for Narcissistic, Cluster C and Borderline Clients:
Finalizing emotion activating technicques in the context of special disorders. Participants learn how to apply Schema Therapy to severe personality disorders like Cluster C and BPD and learn about the advantages of Schema Therapy over traditional therapies for these client groups.
Participants will learn how to use the specific therapeutic technique of “Limited Reparenting”, which includes a very warm and caring attitude towards the client’s “Child Modes” on one hand, and very efficient technique of overcoming dysfunctional Coping Modes, the “Empathic Confrontation”, on the other. Setting limits to client’s destructive modes will be trained as well.
- Curriculum of topics in the project:
– The ISST requires 40 hours a 60 minutes basic training – didactic (25 hours) and dyadic training in small groups (15 hours). The following content table must be included:
1 Concept and Case conceptualization
1.1 Schema Theory and Concept
Schemas, Coping Styles, and Modes: Defined and Differentiated
Assessment: including interviews, imagery, and inventories Psycho-education about needs and rights of children, Temperamental Factors
1.2 Treatment Formulation & Case Conceptualization
Clarifying Goals & Needs in Schema Terms and/or Modes
Conceptualizing a Case in Schema Terms and/or modes
2 Therapy Relationship
Limited Re-Parenting
Empathic Confrontation
Limit Setting
Therapists Schemas: Dealing with obstacles in treatment when therapists’
schemas become activated with certain types of patients.
Appropriate use of self-disclosure
3 Schema Therapy techniques
3.1 Cognitive techniques
Diaries
Flashcards
3.2 Experiential techniques I (Imagery work)
Imagery & Imagery re-scripting
Linking Schemas/modes with Early Childhood Experiences
Limited Re-Parenting with Child modes, especially with the Vulnerable and Angry Child Modes,
3.3 Experiential techniques II (e.g. Mode dialogues & Roleplay)
ST dialogues with schemas and modes
Empathic Confrontation/limit setting for Maladaptive Coping Modes Confronting and limit setting for Punitive and Demanding Parent Modes Role-Plays
3.4 Homework assignments and behavior change strategies
4 Specific Treatment Populations
4.1 Schema Mode Work with Personality disorders
BPD (required)
Cluster C (required) NPD
Other Personality Disorders
PDs become required as trials support the effectiveness of ST for them
4.4 Schema Therapy with other Axis-I-Disorders (optional until an evidence base
is established)
Addiction
Eating Disorders
PTSD OCD
5 Literature
Reinventing Your Life
Schema Therapy: A Practitioner’s Guide;
Other Reading Materials
Note: ISST requirements for an ISST Standard Certification diploma are (see also www.schematherapysociety.org):
- 40 hours of theory and dyadic practice (covered by the workshop curriculum)
- 20 hours of supervision a 50 minutes, either individually or in groups, can be provided face to face or via Skype etc.
- Written case conceptualization of one case, rated by an independent Supervisor according to the “Schema Therapy Case Conceptualization Rating Scale, STCCRS”, ranging from 1-6, applicants must reach a mean score of 4.0 or higher
- Taped video session (minimum 45 minutes), rated by an independent Schema Therapy supervisor according to the “Schema Therapy Competency Rating Scale, STCRS”, which ranges from 1-6, applicants must reach a score of 4.0 or higher (not too difficult …)
- Being Member of the ISST
- It delivers the required theory hours (at least 40 hours all together) for a diploma as an ISST- certified Schema Therapist.
- The certification process is only possible if participants attend all 3 workshops.
Registration Fees:
Egyptians:
Early bird registration (before 1 Augst 2023):
- Individual: 15000 EGP
- For group of 3 individuals: 14000 Per person
Late registration (after 1 Augst 2023)
- Individual: 16500 EGP
- For group of 4 individuals: 15000 EGP Per person
Non Egyptians:
Early bird registration (before 1 Augst 2023): 750 $
Late registration (after 1 Augst 2023) : 850$
