Master Schema Therapy for Individuals: ISST Certification Training
The Fall 2026 Schema Therapy Training Program covers all 42 hours of coursework toward ISST individual certification. Live online, weekly across 14 weeks, taught by a therapist who trained directly with Jeffrey Young beginning in 1994.
What Schema Therapy Helps You See
The model gives you three things most frameworks do not — a live map of the room, a prescribed relational stance, and methods that reach emotion directly.
A live map of the room
A prescribed relational stance
Methods that reach emotion directly
Mode language tells you who is in front of you at any moment. Sudden shifts stop reading as resistance. They become information.
Limited reparenting replaces neutral distance with a warm, boundaried presence. The relationship itself becomes the intervention.
Imagery rescripting and chairwork help clients experience something different, not just understand it. That is where schema therapy becomes more than insight.
From Coursework to Clinical Change
Two things this training gives you: a different way of working in the room, and the required coursework hours toward ISST Individual Certification.
The Next Time a Client Shifts Modes, You’ll Know What to Do
The Fall 2026 cohort begins September 10 and runs weekly through December 17. Seats are limited, and applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
What You’ll Learn: Four Modules Across 14 Weeks
The program builds in sequence — from recognizing schemas in the room to the experiential methods that create change.
The Schema Model in Practice
Early maladaptive schemas, schema domains, and coping styles — and how to recognize them as they surface in a live session rather than only in a case formulation.
Mode Work
Identifying child modes, dysfunctional parent modes, maladaptive coping modes, and the Healthy Adult. You’ll learn to name who is in front of you and respond to that mode specifically.
Limited Reparenting
The core therapeutic stance of schema therapy — how to meet unmet emotional needs within professional boundaries, and how to hold that stance when a client tests it.
Experiential Techniques
Imagery rescripting, chairwork, and empathic confrontation — the methods that reach emotion directly instead of talking around it.
Why Schema Therapy Belongs in Your Toolkit
Schema therapy was developed by Jeffrey Young to reach clients who plateau in standard cognitive and behavioral work — chronic, characterological, and treatment-resistant presentations. Controlled trials of schema therapy for borderline personality disorder have reported recovery or meaningful improvement in a substantial share of clients, with lower dropout than many comparison treatments.
For clinicians, the payoff is a model that explains why a client keeps repeating the same pattern and gives you concrete methods to interrupt it — not just insight, but change you can see in the room.
Why Experienced Therapists Choose Schema Therapy
Clinicians who train in this model consistently describe a similar shift in how their work feels and functions.
Difficult clients become understandable
Patterns that once felt confusing or stuck resolve into a clear map of schemas and modes.
Mode shifts become visible
Sudden changes in the room stop reading as resistance and start reading as information you can work with.
Emotion becomes accessible
Experiential methods reach feeling directly, so sessions move beyond insight into genuine change.
Sessions feel less draining
A defined stance and clear methods replace the effort of improvising with the hardest presentations.
Therapy becomes more effective
A coherent framework connects formulation to intervention, so your work compounds session to session.
You gain a repeatable approach
The same principles apply across clients, giving you a method you can return to rather than starting from scratch.
Program Structure & Schedule
The program runs live online, weekly across 14 weeks. Sessions blend didactic teaching with live demonstrations, guided role plays, and instructor feedback, so you leave each week with something you can use immediately.
Fall 2026 dates
- Sep 10
- Sep 17
- Oct 1
- Oct 8
- Oct 15
- Oct 22
- Oct 29
- Nov 5
- Nov 12
- Nov 19
- Dec 3
- Dec 10
- Dec 17
The full sequence delivers all 42 hours of didactic coursework required toward Individual Schema Therapist certification through the International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST).
Experiential Methods You’ll Practice
These are the techniques that reach emotion directly — practiced through demonstration, guided role plays, and instructor feedback.
Imagery Rescripting
Revisiting formative memories and changing their emotional outcome so the schema loses its grip.
Chairwork
Externalizing modes so a client can separate the vulnerable child, the punitive parent, and the healthy adult, and speak from each.
Empathic Confrontation
Naming a coping mode with warmth so the client can see it operating without feeling attacked.
What You Receive
- 42 hours of live, interactive coursework toward ISST Individual Certification.
- Direct instruction from a therapist who trained with Jeffrey Young, beginning in 1994.
- Live demonstrations, guided role plays, and experiential practice of imagery rescripting, chairwork, and mode work.
- The complete 42-hour coursework component required toward ISST Individual Certification.
Who This Training Is For
Licensed mental health clinicians — psychologists, social workers, counselors, and psychiatrists — who work with individual adults and want a structured, evidence-based approach to complex, characterological, and treatment-resistant presentations.
It is especially suited to clinicians who feel their talk-based work keeps circling the same patterns and want methods that reach emotion directly.
Tuition & Enrollment
Full tuition details and enrollment options are available on our tuition page. Applications for the next cohort are reviewed on a rolling basis, and seats are limited.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this coursework count toward ISST certification?
Yes. The program fulfills the 42 hours of coursework toward ISST Individual Certification. ISST certification also requires separate consultation and competency requirements, which are not included in this coursework.
Is the training live or self-paced?
Live online, weekly across 14 weeks, so you can ask questions and practice in real time.
Who teaches it?
A therapist who trained directly with Jeffrey Young, the founder of schema therapy, beginning in 1994.
Do I need prior schema therapy experience?
No. The program builds from the model’s foundations through advanced experiential techniques.
Train Where Schema Therapy Was Built
Seats for the Fall 2026 cohort are limited. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.