CERTIFICATION COURSE IN SCHEMA THERAPY FOR INDIVIDUALS
Master the Art of Schema Therapy for Individuals: A Comprehensive Training Program Tailored for You
Embark on a Journey of Professional Growth: Dive Deep into our Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 Schema Therapy Training Programs, and Propel Your Career to New Heights with ISST Certification! 5.0 ★★★★★ 5/5
Some clients make you a better clinician. Others trigger self doubt, making you question whether you have any idea what you’re doing.
The second group often shares something in common. Deeply entrenched patterns that resist your best interventions. You understand the dynamics and have built solid rapport with these challenging clients. Yet session after session, the same cycles repeat.
Schema therapy was developed for exactly these presentations. Effectively treating clients with destructive patterns requires reaching what maintains chronic difficulties rather than managing symptoms at the surface.
Key Takeaways and Learning Objectives
Schema therapy stands among the most effective treatments for personality disorders. Research positions it alongside Dialectical Behavior Therapy, MBT, and TFP as a first-line approach for borderline personality disorder, with clinical outcomes that match or exceed alternatives.
The STTCNY certification program provides 42 hours of coursework. This intensive training course exceeds ISST requirements and covers schema therapy applications across personality disorders including BPD, narcissistic personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, avoidant, and antisocial personality disorder.
Spaced learning design produces superior retention. Rather than intensive training compressed into weekends, the program extends over months, allowing integration with ongoing clinical practice.
Spring 2026 and Fall 2026 cohorts are now accepting applications. Live sessions run weekly at times designed for working mental health professionals.
Why Schema Therapy for Personality Disorders Belongs in Your Toolkit
You already have effective strategies. CBT protocols deliver results. Perhaps DBT skills training or psychodynamic formulation rounds out your approach. These proven therapies serve many clients well when treating clients with a range of mental health concerns.
But some presentations demand something more.
Personality disorders. Chronic depression that returns despite successful acute treatment. Clients whose relational patterns destroy interpersonal relationships regardless of insight. Maladaptive patterns that repeat across relationships, jobs, and life circumstances.
In clinical practice, schema therapy addresses these cases by targeting maladaptive schemas, maladaptive beliefs, and coping responses maintaining difficulties. Rather than focusing on what clients think and do today, the model reaches what formed decades ago and continues operating outside awareness. Evidence-based approaches like schema therapy provide frameworks that address complex presentations and improve outcomes when treating clients with personality disorders.
Clients with personality disorders often present with co occurring disorders that complicate treatment. An accurate diagnosis guides intervention, and schema therapy provides frameworks for navigating these complexities. Some clients have experienced emotional abuse or other early adverse experiences that created the schemas now driving their suffering.
The Therapeutic Alliance Challenge with Personality Disorders
Therapeutic alliances can be difficult to establish with clients who have personality disorders due to their mistrust and control issues. Standard rapport-building techniques often fall flat. A client with narcissistic features may dismiss your expertise while simultaneously demanding your admiration. Someone with borderline dynamics might test your commitment through crisis after crisis. Avoidant clients withdraw just as connection begins to form.
Schema therapy addresses these alliance challenges directly through the limited reparenting stance. Rather than maintaining therapeutic neutrality that reinforces early relational schemas, the model prescribes a warm, boundaried presence that provides what was missing developmentally. The therapeutic relationship becomes the intervention, not just the context for intervention.
Evidence for Personality Disorders: The Hardest Cases
Research on schema therapy with borderline personality disorder shows roughly 70% recovery rates. We’re talking about the most challenging clients in mental health. Full diagnostic criteria. Histories of treatment failures. Previous hospitalizations. Chronic suicidality. Cases that make experienced clinicians feel like beginners again.
Seventy percent recovery. Not stabilization. Not symptom management. Recovery.
Now think about your actual caseload.
How many clients meet full criteria for a personality disorder? Probably a handful. Yet how many have one or two personality disorder traits without the full diagnosis? Picture the client with abandonment sensitivity who sabotages every promising relationship. Then consider someone with enough narcissistic features to deflect feedback but not enough for formal diagnosis. The avoidant client who cancels whenever sessions approach something vulnerable presents another common example.
Trait-level presentations likely outnumber your diagnosed personality disorders ten to one. Most therapists see far more subclinical cases than full-criteria personality disorders. If schema therapy produces 70% recovery with the most severe and rigid presentations, the model offers even more for clients whose destructive patterns are less entrenched.
Identical schemas operate in both groups. The same modes activate under stress. What differs is intensity and rigidity. A client with borderline personality disorder might shift into Angry Child mode and stay there for an entire session. Someone with abandonment sensitivity as a trait might touch that mode briefly and recover within minutes. Same mechanism, different intensity, same intervention framework.
Schema therapy advanced training transforms clinical work with diagnosed personality disorders and with the much larger population carrying trait-level presentations. Modes and schemas drive human suffering across the full spectrum of severity.
The “Big Four” for Borderline Personality Disorder
When clinicians discuss evidence-based interventions for BPD, four models dominate the conversation.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy offers skills training and distress tolerance. Mentalization-Based Treatment focuses on reflective functioning. Transference-Focused Psychotherapy uses the therapeutic relationship to modify internal object relations. Schema therapy targets the schemas and modes driving borderline dynamics directly.
Where Schema Therapy Stands for Treating Personality Disorders
Research consistently ranks schema therapy at the top or near the top. A multicenter trial reported roughly 70% recovery over three years for patients with personality disorders receiving schema therapy, outperforming comparison treatments.
The UK’s NICE guidelines recommend schema therapy as a first-line treatment for BPD. Such recognition reflects accumulated evidence of the model’s effectiveness in treating personality disorders.
Why Clinicians Prefer Schema Therapy for Personality Disorders
Each of the four models works. Your choice depends partly on training availability and partly on clinical fit.
Many clinicians find schema therapy’s explicit framework for understanding mode shifts particularly valuable. When a client’s presentation changes suddenly mid-session, the model names what’s happening. Rather than interpreting rapid state changes as manipulation or resistance, you recognize which mode has activated and select matched treatment strategies.
Sessions feel different when you have that clarity. Both for you and for the client.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Personality Disorders
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is used to treat personality disorders, though standard CBT protocols often require modification for these populations. Traditional CBT focuses on current cognitions and behaviors, which works well for Axis I conditions. Personality disorders involve deeper structures that formed early and operate automatically.
Schema therapy emerged from CBT specifically to address these limitations. Jeffrey Young developed the model after observing that standard cognitive interventions weren’t reaching what maintained chronic difficulties. The schema framework extends CBT’s cognitive focus to include earlier developmental material and adds experiential techniques that access emotional learning systems.
Clinicians trained in CBT often find schema therapy a natural evolution. The cognitive restructuring skills transfer directly. What’s added is a conceptual framework for understanding where schemas originated and experiential methods for accessing material that cognitive techniques alone cannot.
What This Personality Disorders Online Course Covers
The STTCNY certification program provides comprehensive advanced training across schema therapy applications for individual clients. Course materials arrive through live sessions and supplementary resources. Competence develops in assessment, conceptualization, and intervention with personality disorders and the broader population whose schemas drive their difficulties.
The program includes access to a private course portal for tracking progress and downloading materials. Supplementary course materials remain accessible for up to one year after your cohort ends. Between live sessions, content review happens at your own pace. Instant access to supplementary resources begins upon enrollment.
This online course goes beyond what a borderline personality disorder workbook or narcissistic personality disorder toolbox can offer. While such resources provide useful frameworks, they cannot replace the depth of advanced training with live instruction, role-playing, and direct feedback on technique.
The training includes practical, effective interventions informed by neuroscience to help clients manage symptoms and address underlying schema structures. Modern understanding of emotional memory systems and neural plasticity informs how experiential techniques create lasting change.
Module One: Introduction to Schema Therapy for Personality Disorders
Foundations matter. This opening module covers the conceptual model, schema assessment methods, and core intervention categories.
Cognitive strategies for schema modification receive thorough attention. Experiential techniques that reach emotional learning systems follow. How the therapeutic relationship itself functions as an intervention rounds out the foundational content.
Role-playing and discussion integrate concepts with clinical application. Learning objectives include mastering assessment tools and developing case conceptualization skills for personality disorders and trait-level presentations. Additional learning objectives address recognizing narcissistic behaviors and other personality disorder traits across the diagnostic spectrum.
The training is structured to support both beginners and experienced clinicians in learning about personality disorders through the lens of schema therapy. Those new to the model receive comprehensive foundations, while experienced practitioners deepen their understanding and refine their technique.
For ISST certification, applicants must treat at least two long-term cases using schema therapy as the primary modality, with a minimum of 25 sessions per case and approximately 80 total sessions across all certification cases.
Module Two: Schema Mode Therapy for BPD and Cluster B Personality Disorders
Borderline presentations require mode-level intervention. Systematic intensive training in working with the shifting states characteristic of BPD and other cluster B personality disorders forms the core of this module.
The schema mode model and how modes manifest in borderline clients are covered in detail. Assessment tools help identify which modes drive particular presentations. Crisis management and self-harm prevention also receive attention, as these skills prove critical when working with personality disorders.
Building the Therapeutic Relationship
Limited reparenting with borderline clients requires skill. Therapeutic stance, assessment scales for tracking the alliance, and strategies for managing ruptures are all covered.
Emotional regulation techniques form another focus area. Safe place imagery, mindfulness applications, mode monitoring, and mode diary use help clients set healthy boundaries and maintain healthy boundaries in their relationships outside therapy. These interventions support clients in building healthier relationships across all domains of life.
Change Strategies for Personality Disorders
Cognitive, experiential, behavioral, and relational change strategies specific to borderline presentations and other personality disorders fill this section.
Imagery rescripting protocols address traumatic memories maintaining schemas. Chair work facilitates dialogue between modes. Behavioral interventions target schema-driven patterns affecting emotional regulation. Digital recordings of clinical work demonstrate skilled implementation, showing what these treatment strategies look like when executed well.
Module Three: Narcissistic Personality Disorder Certification Training and Narcissistic Abuse
Narcissistic personality disorder challenges most approaches. Defenses run deep, and vulnerability hides behind grandiosity or entitlement. Standard therapeutic stances often backfire spectacularly.
Specific advanced training for NPD forms the core of this module, along with the impact of narcissistic abuse on clients and families. Understanding narcissistic abuse proves essential for clinicians working with survivors.
The schema mode model applies to narcissistic personality disorder presentations in particular ways. Assessment strategies address the difficulties of evaluating clients whose defenses obscure what’s actually happening underneath. Recognizing narcissistic behaviors requires training beyond what a histrionic workbook or standard personality disorders text provides. Family therapy applications benefit from understanding narcissistic abuse dynamics where partners or family members have experienced harm.
The training includes a multifaceted exploration of assessment, developmental, relational, and treatment dynamics specific to narcissistic personality disorder. Dual diagnoses and other pertinent co occurring disorders receive attention, as NPD rarely presents in isolation.
Why Schema Therapy Excels for Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Professionals can specialize in narcissistic personality disorder through certificate programs from providers like PESI, Psychotherapy Networker, and TECH Global University. Many of these programs offer valuable introductions to NPD dynamics and treatment considerations.
Schema therapy offers something distinct for narcissistic personality disorder treatment. The model conceptualizes narcissistic presentations as compensatory structures protecting profound vulnerability. Grandiosity, entitlement, and exploitation defend against core feelings of defectiveness and shame. Treatment requires bypassing these defenses without triggering escalation.
Empathic confrontation achieves this balance. The technique validates underlying vulnerability while firmly addressing problematic patterns. Research suggests schema therapy may be particularly effective for NPD because it reaches the vulnerable core that other approaches struggle to access.
For clinicians working with narcissistic abuse survivors, schema therapy provides frameworks for understanding both perpetrator dynamics and survivor responses. Schemas like Subjugation and Self-Sacrifice often develop in those who remain in narcissistically abusive relationships. Treatment addresses these patterns while building capacity for healthier relationships.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder Treatment Strategies
Cognitive, experiential, behavioral, and relational interventions for narcissistic personality disorder receive detailed attention.
Empathic confrontation technique gets special focus. This intervention threads a needle, validating the underlying vulnerability while firmly addressing problematic patterns. Done poorly, it ruptures the alliance or enables avoidance. Skillful execution opens doors that seemed permanently sealed.
Motivation enhancement with clients who may not see their patterns as problematic receives extended coverage. Treatment can’t proceed when the client doesn’t recognize that a problem exists. Fostering personal growth and self-awareness supports lasting change.
Digital recordings and discussion illustrate these treatment strategies. Clinicians seeking depth in narcissistic personality disorder work find this module essential. For those pursuing a narcissistic personality disorder certification application through ISST, the advanced training provides specialized knowledge.
Module Four: Avoidant, Obsessive Compulsive, and Antisocial Personality Disorders
Avoidant, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder round out the curriculum, extending schema therapy principles to these distinct populations.
Working with Avoidant Personality Disorder
Avoidant clients present particular challenges around accessing vulnerability. Their Detached Protector mode, a concept from Schema Therapy, keeps them safe but prevents the therapeutic work necessary for change.
They show up reliably. Pleasant and cooperative on the surface. Willing to discuss practical concerns or intellectualized observations about their patterns. But when sessions move toward emotional material, something shifts. Cancellations increase. Topics drift. Memory for previous sessions fades.
Characteristic schemas and modes in avoidant presentations require specific identification skills. Assessment strategies help map each client’s particular pattern of personality disorder traits. Mode work for bypassing the Detached Protector and accessing the Vulnerable Child forms a key skill. Improving interpersonal relationships is emphasized, as avoidant clients often struggle with social connections and with building healthier relationships.
Working with Antisocial Personality Disorder
Antisocial personality disorder presentations require modified approaches. Limit setting becomes more prominent, and therapist self-care, along with schema management, receives explicit attention. Burnout prevention matters when working with antisocial personality disorder, as these challenging clients demand significant emotional resources.
Origins, common schemas, and characteristic modes in antisocial personality disorder all receive coverage. Intervention and treatment strategies address the particular challenges posed by these presentations. Addiction counselors working with co-occurring disorders find these approaches particularly applicable to their settings.
Program Structure and Schedule
The certification program uses a spaced learning format. Rather than compressing 42 hours into intensive training weekends, sessions extend over several months.
Instant access to supplementary course materials begins upon registration. Content on the go lets you review resources anytime during and after your cohort.
Why Spaced Learning Works Better
Research on learning and retention demonstrates that distributed practice outperforms massed practice. Information acquired across spaced sessions consolidates more effectively than material crammed into brief intensive periods.
Program design reflects this research. Concepts arrive in one session. Application with your caseload happens during the week. Questions and observations return with you in the following session. Competence builds progressively through this cycle.
Spring 2026 Cohort Schedule: Schema Therapy for Individuals
The Spring 2026 program runs from February through May.
February sessions: 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th.
March sessions: 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th.
April sessions: 16th, 23rd, 30th.
May sessions: 7th, 14th, 21st.
All sessions run from 11 am to 2 pm Eastern Time.
Fall 2026 Cohort Schedule
The Fall 2026 program runs September through December.
September sessions: 10th, 17th, 24th.
October sessions: 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th.
November sessions: 5th, 12th, 19th.
December sessions: 3rd, 10th, 17th.
All sessions run from 11 am to 2 pm Eastern Time.
What You Receive
Forty-two hours of live coursework meeting ISST requirements for schema therapy certification pathways form the program’s core. Instant access to supplementary course materials begins upon enrollment.
Participants who have successfully completed all requirements receive a certificate documenting their coursework hours. The certification questionnaire included with the program supports your ISST certification application process. Submitting the certification questionnaire to ISST initiates a formal certification application.
If you are not completely satisfied with the training, contact us for support or resolution.
Recording Access
Every session is recorded for review and reinforcement of learning. Access to recordings remains available for up to 1 year after your cohort ends.
ISST requires live attendance for coursework hours to count toward certification. Recordings cannot substitute for live participation. However, recordings prove invaluable for reviewing technique demonstrations, revisiting complex concepts, and deepening understanding after each session.
Content on the go lets you review course materials between sessions and for up to 1 year after your cohort.
Certificate of Completion
A certificate documenting 42 hours of schema therapy coursework arrives upon program completion.
This certificate supports your ISST certification application, which additionally requires supervised treatment of at least 2 complex cases and meeting ISST competency standards.
Your Trainer: Travis Atkinson
Travis Atkinson, a licensed clinical social worker, founded the Schema Therapy Training Center of New York and serves as the primary trainer for the individual certification program.
Training Background
Travis’s study with Jeffrey Young began in 1995. Travis subsequently joined the Cognitive Therapy Center of New York as a staff clinician, working alongside Young and other experts for over a decade.
This lineage matters. Schema therapy techniques that appear straightforward in texts require nuanced implementation. Learning from someone who developed competence alongside the model’s creator adds depth that reading alone cannot.
Professional Recognition
Travis serves as a lifetime Honorary Member of the International Society of Schema Therapy. He held the media coordinator position on the ISST executive board from 2014 to 2020.
His contributions have supported the global expansion of schema therapy. Training from Travis reflects both clinical depth and awareness of the model’s international evolution.
Who Does This Personality Disorders Program Serve
Licensed mental health professionals seeking ISST schema therapy certification form the program’s primary audience. ISST requires a graduate degree in a mental health field and licensure to practice psychotherapy independently.
The course on narcissistic personality disorder and other personality disorders is designed for social workers, counselors, and marriage and family therapists seeking advanced clinical skills.
Becoming an Effective Personality Disorder Treatment Provider
While ISST certification is broad in schema therapy, completing this program develops the skills that make you an effective provider of personality disorder treatment. Certified personality disorder treatment competencies apply to full-criteria presentations and the larger population with personality disorder traits.
Mental health counselors, social workers, family therapists, licensed psychologists, and psychiatrists completing this training report increased confidence in their ability to address personality disorders and complex presentations. A master’s degree, combined with ISST certification, demonstrates a commitment to evidence-based practice. Clinicians from both clinical psychology and social work backgrounds find the training applicable to their work.
Certified Personality Disorder Treatment Competencies
Becoming an effective provider of personality disorder treatment requires more than reading about techniques. STTCNY’s advanced training develops certified skills in personality disorder treatment through demonstration, practice, and feedback. The intensive training format builds competence that transfers directly to clinical work with challenging clients.
Clinical Backgrounds
Psychologists, social workers, licensed counselors, marriage and family therapists, and psychiatrists participate. Social workers and family therapists find the training particularly applicable to complex cases. ISST requires that applicants hold a graduate degree in a mental health field and maintain licensure to practice psychotherapy independently.
Prior schema therapy coursework is not required, but useful. Participants must be practicing licensed psychotherapists with a master’s degree or higher. Foundations are covered comprehensively in the program.
Practice Settings
Clinicians from diverse settings benefit. Private practice therapists gain tools for complex cases. Agency clinicians develop skills for working with populations with personality disorders. Hospital and residential staff expand their treatment capabilities. Whether in private practice or institutional settings, the training addresses real clinical challenges.
International Participation
The online course format accommodates international participants. The 11 am Eastern time works for European clinicians in evening hours and remains accessible across North American time zones.
Interactive message boards enable participants to collaborate instantly with peers worldwide and share insights. These digital forums provide opportunities to discuss course materials and clinical challenges with colleagues worldwide.
How Online Training Develops Skills for Personality Disorders
Skepticism about online training for experiential techniques makes sense. Imagery rescripting and chair work seem to require in-person demonstration.
Video demonstration proves effective for initial skill acquisition, though. Pause, replay, and study implementation closely. Observe subtle therapist behaviors that might pass unnoticed in live workshop observation.
Practice and Feedback
Role-playing exercises and group discussion fill each session. Techniques get practiced and feedback received. The cohort format creates a learning community that extends beyond the formal curriculum.
Integration with Your Caseload
The greatest advantage of spaced online training is integration with ongoing practice. A technique learned in one session gets tried with appropriate clients during the week. Observations and questions return with you to the next session.
This cycle accelerates skill development beyond what workshop-then-wait-months-to-apply formats achieve.
The Path to ISST Certification: Beyond Continuing Education
ISST certification requires coursework hours plus supervised treatment of complex cases. This program fulfills the coursework requirement.
Certification Coursework, Not Continuing Education
Many clinicians accumulate continuing education credits to maintain licensure. Social workers, counselors, and family therapists complete continuing education hours as part of their renewal requirements. Mental health counselors often view continuing education as an obligation rather than an opportunity. These programs serve a purpose, but they’re designed for maintenance rather than transformation.
This program is different. ISST certification coursework builds genuine competence with personality disorders and complex presentations. The goal isn’t checking a box for license renewal or earning continuing education credit. Instead, the goal is to become a more effective clinician with your most challenging clients.
Continuing education credit programs typically offer brief exposure to topics. Certification coursework provides depth, practice, feedback, and integration over months. The distinction matters for what you take back to your clinical work.
Unlike many certifications that require periodic renewal through additional continuing education hours, ISST schema therapy certification reflects demonstrated competence in a specific therapeutic modality. Some credentials emphasize maintenance over genuine skill development. The value of ISST certification lies in clinical capability, not paperwork.
Building a Global Schema Therapy Community
Beyond clinical skill development, this program connects you with schema therapy practitioners worldwide. Interactive message boards enable participants to collaborate instantly with peers, share insights, and discuss clinical challenges.
That community extends beyond the formal program. ISST certification places you within a global network of schema therapists committed to evidence-based practice with personality disorders and other complex presentations. Collegial relationships developed during training often continue for years.
Standard Certification Requirements
Standard ISST certification requires at least 40 hours of specialized coursework. This program provides 42 hours, exceeding the minimum. The certification pathway is straightforward, with just certification requirements clearly stated and no hidden steps.
Supervised therapeutic contact with at least two complex cases demonstrating personality disorders is additionally required. Supervision is arranged separately from coursework. STTCNY is solely responsible for the development and quality of its coursework component.
Advanced Certification
Advanced certification requires additional supervised hours and demonstrated competence with difficult presentations. Substantial therapeutic contact with complex cases builds the foundation for advanced work. Advanced practitioners can supervise and train others within the ISST framework.
How STTCNY Supports Your Pathway
The program provides coursework meeting ISST requirements. STTCNY can guide supervision arrangements to help you complete your certification pathway.
Personality Disorders Certification Landscape in 2026
In 2026, professionals can pursue several certification programs to specialize in personality disorders or narcissistic abuse treatment. These options fall into two broad categories: clinical treatment of survivors and diagnosis and treatment of the disorder itself.
Understanding the landscape helps you choose the credential that best fits your clinical goals.
ISST Schema Therapy Certification
ISST certification establishes competence in schema therapy as a comprehensive treatment modality. The certification applies to work with personality disorders, chronic depression, and the broader population whose schemas drive their difficulties.
Requirements include 40+ hours of specialized coursework and supervised treatment of complex cases. No exam is required. Certification reflects demonstrated competence rather than test performance. Once achieved, ISST certification does not require periodic renewal through continuing education hours.
Certified Personality Disorder Treatment Provider (C-PD)
The Certified Personality Disorder Treatment Provider certification focuses specifically on the diagnosis and treatment of personality disorders. To be eligible for C-PD certification, the applicant must have earned a master’s degree in their profession and hold a state or national license.
The C-PD certification requires the completion of a minimum of 18 hours of continuing education in specific personality disorder diagnosis, screening, assessment, and treatment intervention topics. Most certification programs in this category require passing an exam with a score of 70-80%.
To maintain C-PD certification, a renewal is required after the initial one-year certification period. A one-year renewal requires 6 clock hours of personality disorder-focused training since the last certification or renewal. The two-year renewal requires 12 hours, and the three-year renewal requires 18 hours. If certification lapses for more than 3 years, the individual is no longer eligible to renew and must reapply.
Certified Narcissistic Abuse Treatment Clinician (NATC)
The Certified Narcissistic Abuse Treatment Clinician focuses on abuse dynamics and trauma rather than treating individuals with NPD. Educational standards for NATC require a minimum of 36 hours of specialized continuing education covering narcissistic abuse cycles and trauma.
This certification serves clinicians working primarily with survivors of narcissistic abuse rather than those treating personality disorders directly.
How Schema Therapy Complements Other Credentials
Schema therapy provides a comprehensive treatment framework that enhances work across these specializations. Clinicians holding NATC certification find schema therapy valuable for understanding survivor schemas like Subjugation and Mistrust that develop in abusive relationships. Those with C-PD certification gain specific intervention methods for the personality disorders they’re credentialed to treat.
ISST certification can stand alone or complement other credentials. The schema framework applies to perpetrator treatment, survivor work, and the full spectrum of personality pathology.
Frequently Asked Questions About Personality Disorders Training
Do I need prior experience with schema therapy?
Prior schema therapy coursework is not required, but useful. Foundations receive comprehensive coverage before progressing to advanced applications.
What if I miss a session?
ISST requires live attendance for coursework hours to count toward certification, so recordings cannot substitute for missed sessions. Review the cohort schedule carefully before enrolling to ensure you can attend all sessions. If an emergency arises, contact us to discuss options.
Recordings remain available for up to 1 year after your cohort ends to support learning by allowing you to review and reinforce material covered in sessions you attended.
Can I complete both the individual and couples certification?
Yes. These are separate ISST certification tracks. Many clinicians complete both.
How does this relate to my existing approach?
Schema therapy integrates with CBT, psychodynamic, family therapy, and other frameworks. Most clinicians add it to existing skills rather than replacing their orientation.
What technology do I need?
A computer with reliable internet and video capability. The platform works on standard devices.
Is there a payment plan?
Yes. Tuition can be paid in installments. Details are provided upon application.
What are the therapeutic contact requirements for ISST certification?
For ISST certification, applicants must treat at least two long-term cases using schema therapy as the primary modality. Each case requires a minimum of 25 sessions, with approximately 80 total sessions across all certification cases as specified in ISST guidelines.
How is this different from continuing education?
Continuing education programs typically offer brief exposure to topics for license renewal. Several organizations offer specialized training for certification in personality disorders and narcissistic abuse treatment, providing accredited continuing education hours. These programs serve a different purpose than ISST certification coursework.
ISST certification coursework provides intensive training over months, building genuine competence through demonstration, practice, and feedback. The focus is on clinical capability rather than credential maintenance.
How does ISST certification compare to C-PD certification?
Different credentials serve different purposes. The Certified Personality Disorder Treatment Provider certification requires 18 hours of continuing education in personality disorder topics and requires renewal after the initial one-year certification. A one-year renewal requires 6 hours, a two-year renewal requires 12 hours, and a three-year renewal requires 18 hours of personality disorder-focused training.
ISST certification requires 40+ hours of specialized schema therapy coursework plus supervised treatment of complex cases. Once achieved, ISST certification does not require periodic renewal. The certifications can complement each other, with C-PD establishing broad competence in personality disorders and ISST certification demonstrating depth in a specific evidence-based modality.
Is there an exam?
ISST certification does not require passing an examination. Certification is based on completed coursework hours and supervised treatment of complex cases, demonstrating competence. Some other personality disorder certifications require passing an exam with scores of 70 to 80 percent, but ISST focuses on demonstrated clinical capability rather than test performance.
How does this compare to other NPD training programs?
Professionals can specialize in narcissistic personality disorder through certificate programs from providers like PESI, Psychotherapy Networker, and TECH Global University. Many offer continuing education credits and introductory coverage of NPD dynamics.
STTCNY’s program provides deeper immersion in a specific treatment modality with strong evidence for personality disorders. Rather than survey-level exposure, you develop competence in assessment, conceptualization, and intervention across 42 hours of training plus supervised practice.
What about certification for working with narcissistic abuse survivors?
The Certified Narcissistic Abuse Treatment Clinician certification focuses specifically on abuse dynamics and trauma treatment for survivors. Schema therapy complements NATC work beautifully. Survivors often develop schemas like Subjugation, Mistrust, and Defectiveness through abusive relationships. The schema framework helps conceptualize and treat these patterns.
Clinicians working with both survivors and individuals with NPD find ISST certification valuable for understanding both sides of narcissistic abuse dynamics.
What will the personality disorders certification landscape look like going forward?
In 2026, the field continues to specialize. Clinicians increasingly seek credentials demonstrating competence with specific populations rather than general mental health practice. Personality disorders certification, narcissistic abuse treatment credentials, and modality-specific certifications like ISST all reflect this trend toward specialization.
Schema therapy‘s strong evidence base positions it well for clinicians seeking depth in the treatment of personality disorders. The modality addresses both full-criteria personality disorders and the larger population with trait-level presentations.
Can I get continuing education credit for this program?
This program provides ISST certification coursework, not continuing education credits. The distinction matters. Continuing education maintains existing credentials, while ISST certification coursework builds new competence in a specific therapeutic modality.
If you need continuing education credits for license renewal, you can obtain them through other programs. STTCNY’s training serves a different purpose.
How do I access course materials?
The program includes access to a private course portal for tracking progress and downloading materials. Supplementary resources become available upon enrollment. Content on the go allows review anytime. Access remains available for up to 1 year after your cohort ends.
Successfully Treat Personality Disorders and Beyond
Completing this program prepares you to successfully treat clients with personality disorders and the broader population with personality disorder traits. Complex presentations become clearer to formulate. Specific treatment strategies for stuck points become available.
When a borderline client shifts modes mid-session, you recognize what’s happening. A client with narcissistic personality disorder activates defenses, and you respond without rupturing the alliance or colluding with avoidance.
Clients who previously frustrated you become comprehensible. Their patterns make sense within the schema framework. Methods that reach what previous approaches could not touch become part of your clinical repertoire. You successfully treat full-criteria personality disorders and many more clients with trait-level presentations.
Taking the Next Step
The Spring 2026 and Fall 2026 cohorts are accepting applications. Choose the schedule that fits your practice.
If your caseload includes clients with personality disorders, chronic treatment resistance, or entrenched patterns that keep cycling despite solid work, this advanced training offers methods to treat these presentations successfully.