PERSONAL STATEMENT- Alp Karaosmanoglu- Running for president

Dear Members of the Schema Society,

When I was president of the Board of the ISST, I know we started out with a good vibe and motivation for the 2020-2022 period of time and we did our best to solve our society’s residual and current problems. After one and a half years I chose to resign because of some unfortunate correspondence between the executive board and one of our committees which resulted in me feeling a lot of pressure. In contrast with the remaining board, as an elected member and representative of the society, it didn’t feel right transferring authority to a committee that reports to the Board according to the statute of our association, and therefore I felt moved to resign instead of causing discord.

The reason I am running again is primarily not to abandon so many members who were hurt, as I was in this situation. And also, if society elects me again I want to put my efforts into the following topics:

• working on the infrastructure of the committees and the regulations to be able to solve the current and future problems as a society in a more democratic way wherein the members feel listened to and included,

• working with related committees on the regulations to guarantee that none of the organs of our society can attempt to silence anyone or censor the listserv.

• refining the current standards and procedures of certification training which is slowing down the progress of Schema Therapy compared to similar therapy schools. We have a minimal number of new member applications. With the latest regulations on the process of becoming a licensed therapist or trainer, it has become very discouraging for a beginner to advance.

• developing up-to-date standards on supporting the use of technology in certification training to help our approach disseminate in a simpler and healthier way.

• building an international web-based platform that can help:

• the clients to fill out their questionnaires

• the therapists to have the calculated results automatically

• the researchers to research the anonymous part of the data.

We have a similar platform in our country that hundreds of therapists and thousands of clients have been using without a single problem for 15 years.

I believe if we update our statutes and regulations with a more democratic and diverse approach, we can handle all the current and future challenges as a highly functional family. We are not just a professional organization!

Warm regards,

Alp