Adolescence is the leap between childhood and adulthood. It therefore requires the therapist to meet the client mid-leap, often between attachment needs and autonomy needs. Schema Therapy provides a language to help teens better understand their motivation (or mode-ivation!) during this leap. This presentation explores how to translate this language (without sounding like just another adult) into a world where the need to connect socially often outweighs what is in the client’s best interests individually, and parental conflict sometimes feels like it offers greater payoff than parental compliance. 

You will explore how adult problems are often teenage adaptations, and learn experiential techniques for repairing attachment ruptures due to these adaptations. This is Schema Therapy for the in-between years.

Based in Sydney, Dr Sarah Dominguez is a clinical psychologist who specialises in trauma-informed therapy,

including EMDR, schema therapy and imagery rescripting. While there is solid evidence to support clients with trauma-related difficulties, some individuals present with additional complexities or fail to respond as expected. These complexities can slow recovery, and the challenges often stem from avoidance, cognitive blocks, or emotional overwhelm.

This presentation examines how imagery rescripting (ImRs) can be integrated with other interventions, such as prolonged exposure, cognitive processing therapy, and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing, to enhance outcomes and treatment efficiency.

Imagery rescripting activities have long been used to model emotional regulation, reframe distressing images, encourage self-compassion, and support behavioural change (Arntz, 2012; Holmes et al., 2021; Morina et al., 2017; Saulsman et al., 2019; van der Wijngaart, 2021). Evidence suggests that adding imagery to trauma-focused interventions can improve client tolerance of treatment and reduce dropout rates (Arntz et al., 2007). Building on this evidence, the session provides practical tools for understanding how ImRs can augment various evidence-based trauma-focused interventions.

Participants will receive a step-by-step guide to incorporating ImRs into their existing practice. Through clinical examples, research insights, and practical demonstrations, attendees will learn to assess when clients may benefit from supplemental interventions and how to apply these techniques to build rapport, address ambivalence or resistance, enhance emotional regulation, and improve treatment outcomes and efficiency.

Schema therapy hinges on an authentic therapeutic relationship, with limited reparenting at its core. Therapists partially meet patients’ unmet childhood needs within clear boundaries, using experiential techniques like imagery to model secure attachment. The therapist’s healthy adult mode—defined by emotional regulation, self-care, and problem-solving—guides patients toward healthier coping strategies. In high stakes contexts, such as institutions or prisons, this process demands a distinct approach. As Alain de Botton notes, a good internal voice resembles a merciful yet discerning judge, balancing empathy with accountability. This presentation explores adaptations to limited reparenting for challenging populations, offering frameworks to strengthen the therapist’s healthy adult mode. I propose strategies to navigate the unique challenges of high-stakes therapeutic relationships, ensuring safe, effective, and ethically grounded schema therapy.

Autistic and ADHD individuals experience significantly elevated rates of complex trauma and co-occurring mental health conditions, including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and substance use (Spicer et al., 2024). In this presentation, Liam Spicer explores how adverse childhood experiences, attachment, and unmet needs contribute to the development of early maladaptive schemas (EMS), which often are reinforced through wider social adversity across the lifespan. 

This session delivered through a neurodiversity-affirming, trauma-informed lens will highlights the need to adapt Schema Therapy by addressing sensory and executive functioning differences, accommodating diverse communication styles, acknowledging the impact of social stigma and trauma, and—most importantly—meeting clients’ needs in an attuned and individualised way.

Tena Davies is a Clinical Psychologist, Advanced Certified Schema Therapist and Psychology Board of Australia Supervisor with over 16 years experience. She grew up in New York City but has lived in Melbourne, Australia for the past 22 years.

Tena has worked across a range of settings throughout her career including in education and private practice. She mainly works with adults who present with conditions such as chronic anxiety, depression, and personality disorders using a schema therapy framework.

She is an active member of the schema therapy community, serving as the current chair of the International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST) bulletin committee and assisting several other committees within the ISST. Tena is the founder of the Schema Therapy Interest Group on Facebook, a group dedicated to supporting over 3,000 therapists to implement schema therapy. She is passionate about empowering schema therapists to use formulation as a springboard for effective treatment.

The Maladaptive Schema Scale (MSS) represents a significant evolution in schema assessment, offering a comprehensive tool that measures 27 constructs integrating both classical and contemporary schema theory. Building upon Jeffrey Young’s early maladaptive schemas, the MSS incorporates constructs informed by recent advances in attachment theory and trauma research. In this presentation, scale co-developer Dr David Hegarty outlines the research foundation and psychometric validation that guided the MSS’s development. Key features of the MSS will be discussed, including its free and open-source nature, multidimensional structure, improved clinical utility, and alignment with contemporary psychological theory. The session will explore how innovations in psychometric methodology enhance the accuracy and relevance of schema assessment in clinical contexts.

Dr David Hegarty is a psychologist and psychometrician serving as Head of Psychometrics at NovoPsych, a leading provider of evidence‑based assessment tools for mental health practitioners. He holds a PhD focused on computerised adaptive cognitive training, combining deep expertise in data analytics, statistics, and psychological theory to translate scientific findings into clinically useful assessment metrics. As an adjunct research fellow at Southern Cross University, his research focusses on psychometric development and validation of numerous instruments used in clinical settings.

This presentation is designed to help therapists better understand and support clients who are transgender or part of the LGBTIQ+ community. We will delve into common schemas and modes, providing innovative strategies to connect, formulate and treat this population.

Key components:

-       Learning the language of transgender and LGBTIQ+ people.

-       Developmental considerations: core needs for gender and sexually diverse people in childhood.  

-       Understanding the lived experience of minority groups.

-       Considering the “Social Critic” mode.

-       Understanding common coping modes and ways to bypass these in session.

Understanding the relationship between neurodiversity and gender/sexuality identity. 

Recent developments within the Schema Therapy model have explored the usefulness of defining positive schemas to orient clients towards change. Similar to maladaptive schemas, positive schemas are also mental models that influence the way in which we view our lives and relationships, which include cognitive, emotional and behavioural components. However, rather than being automatic, habitual and originating in childhood, positive schemas are frequently a result of conscious and intentional practice with the support of a therapist as a guide.

In this presentation, a framework for positive schemas as natural outcomes of schema healing is presented, with clear and specific pathways described for navigating the relevant negative schemas that block the outcomes associated with positive schemas. Finally, examples of intention-based statements aimed at supporting each of the pathways to positive schema development will be discussed.

As has become a tradition at our CONNECT conferences, Andrew will lead the group in an experiential exercise based on his work with his "Schema Therapy - Looking at our Own Stuff" 2-Day Self-Practice/Self-Reflection Retreats he runs at the Blue Mountains of Sydney each year.