JUNE 24 - 26, 2021 / WORLDWIDE

#2021ISSTVIRTUALSUMMIT

SCHEDULE 

How do you use the schema therapy model to work effectively with your couples? In this workshop, Travis Atkinson will be exploring ways to help therapists apply the schema therapy model, with a focus on the therapeutic relationship, to effectively treat some of the most challenging mode cycles, from the extremes of chaos to the confinements of rigidity. Schema Couples Therapy can help distressed, unstable couples shift into satisfying, secure connections that can endure.

Schema therapy, designed as an antidote for deeply engrained personality disorders resistant to standard therapy, provides answers through an expansive approach that targets chronic, negative beliefs and maladaptive coping modes that often reinforce distress in love relationships.

While many couple therapy models offer solutions to help couples, only a few have shown promising, lasting results, without addressing a dynamic when one or both partners are experiencing a personality disorder. With severe mode cycles, how can a couple's therapist help partners shift from intense, negative modes involving rigidity or chaos?

Aims of the Workshop 

1. Identify core destructive cycles in couple dynamics, linking past and present associations with each partner's modes and schemas. Set therapeutic goals as antidotes based on schemas and mode cycles

2. Effectively restructure negative cycles of a couple to address schemas and create new beliefs reinforced through new patterns of emotional connection

3. Solidify safety and security through continued reinforcement of the healthy cycle in a couple to heal injuries and schemas

Summary 

Join us during this skill and intervention-focused workshop that starts with a brief introduction of how the schema therapy model uses mode work in love relationships to improve outcomes for even the most challenging dynamics within a couple.

Assessment: examining the essentials of schemas, modes, chemistry, mode cycle concept, and mode cycle clash cards;

Change: core therapeutic skills in couples work, including imagery imagery, connection dialogues, and chair work

Resolution: key skills and interventions in the final phase with the couple, including a value road map, dreams of the couple, and how to solidify a secure connection

Each section includes clear illustrations, relevant video demonstrations of real couples, and practical role-plays to help you apply the interventions effectively with your couples. 

Learning Objectives

1. Assess schemas and modes of each partner and the love relationship

2. Apply effective interventions to de-escalate maladaptive mode cycles and to create and reinforce adaptive schemas and modes

3. Consolidate new modes of interaction within the couple, and solidify adaptive schemas in relation to the self, the love relationship, and the world

The workshop is intended for: Beginners through advanced level

Suggested Readings

Arntz, A. & Jacob, G. (2012). Schema Therapy in Practice: An Introductory Guide to the Schema Mode Approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Atkinson, T. (2012). Schema Therapy for Couples: Healing Partners in a Relationship in Vreeswijk v.M., Nadort M, Broersen J, (eds.) The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Schema Therapy. New York: Wiley, p. 323-336.

About the Presenter

Travis Atkinson

Travis Atkinson, LCSW, is the Director of the Schema Therapy Training Center of New York

He is an Individual and Couples Advanced Certified Schema Therapist, Supervisor and Trainer.

Travis trained with Jeff Young, the founder of Schema Therapy, starting in 1995, and worked as a staff member of Jeff Young's Cognitive Therapy Center of New York for many years. He helped create the Schema Therapy Institute of New York with Jeff Young, and served as faculty member for several years.

Travis is also certified as an Emotionally Focused Therapist and Supervisor (2010), training for many years with Sue Johnson, the founder of Emotionally Focused Therapy.

He also completed an extensive program at the Gottman Institute in Seattle, Washington, earning his certification as a Gottman Method Couples Therapist in 2006. In addition, Travis completed extensive training in group therapy, and is a Certified Group Psychotherapist.

Travis served as Media Coordinator on the Executive Board of the International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST) from 2014 to 2020, and is currently serving as the chair of the event committee for ISST (2020 - present). He was the chair of ISST's Schema Couples Therapy Special Interest Group (2014 - 2017) and chair of the Committee (2016 - 2017).

Travis has trained therapists internationally for more than 15 years, and is the author of “Healing Partners in a Relationship” in the Handbook of Schema Therapy (Wiley: 2012) and co-author of two chapters of Creative Methods in Schema Therapy (Routledge: 2020), the "Introduction" and "Healing Couples through Schema Therapy for Couples."

Travis is the Founder and Director of the Loving at Your Best Program, a couples therapy center located at Union Square in Manhattan, New York (VISIT: www.lovingatyourbest.com)

VIRTUAL SUMMIT PARTICIPANTS: WATCH NOW

CANCELLATION POLICY: No cancellation is possible once registered. Access to all sessions will be available after the summit ends to registered participants. For questions, please contact the ISST Office at: OFFICE

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