We hope that everyone enjoyed the amazing 2020 ISST Virtual Summit that took place on May 28 - 30th! There was a fantastic line-up of virtual workshops and presentations, on a range of topics.

A real highlight was the appearance of Dr. Jeffrey Young, who presented a keynote interview along with a memorable question and answer session. In addition, Dr. Young co-presented a workshop selection.

The whole event was a real credit to the conference committee, spearheaded by Travis Atkinson, who put an enormous amount of work in a short amount of time to create a digital platform, the Schema Summit App on iOS and Android devices and browsers, along with organizing the presenters and caring for the numerous technical aspects involved in a virtual summit.

We also thank all of the incredible presenters of the summit for their hard work putting together virtual presentations, and the gifts of their knowledge and skills they shared with participants.

If you missed the summit, and haven't already registered for our hybrid event, INSPIRE 2020 taking place June 26 - 28, 2021 (the summit is a bonus for INSPIRE 2020registrants who replied to our emails),  you can still get a ticket for the summit online: 2020 ISST Virtual Summit

For this issue of the Schema Therapy Bulletin, we featureMartine van der Laan, in her article "Friend or Foe? Cognitive interventions to help patients form more positive and stable friendships," describes the mechanisms that contribute to ambivalence in friendships and the role of maladaptive schemas and modes in intensifying these patterns.  She describes the 'Friendship Flower,'  a cognitive tool to help adolescents and adults to explore and enhance friendships.

Christof Loose and Maria Galimzyanova, in their article, "Schema Therapy Focused on Parent-Child Relationships,"explore the influence of schemas and modes within parent-child relationships. They make recommendations on how to best enhance these relationships with the help of schema therapy.

Wendy Behary and Michael Watkins, in their article, "Why Leaders Do the Dysfunctional Things They Do," explore the way in which maladaptive schemas and modes can undermine the effectiveness of those in leadership roles. They suggest new ways organizational relationships can be enhanced through the application of schema therapy principles.

Mary Giuffra, in her article, "Healing Relationships with Traumatized Modes," explores the role of trauma in driving divisions and disconnection in relationships. She provides guidance on healing trauma-driven schemas.

Jeff Conway and Manolya Aydagul, in their article, "The Enmeshment and Undeveloped Self Schema and Conflict in Non-Romantic Relationships," explore how this schema can lead to conflict avoidance, and interfere with intimacy and expression of the authentic self in the content of non-intimate relationships.

Finally, Vivian Francesco interviews former ISST Executive Board President, Wendy Behary.

As always, if you have suggestions for future newsletter topics, or ideas of articles you would like to submit, please contact us!

Susan Simpson (Scotland)
Lissa Parsonnet (USA)
Co-Editors

The Schema Therapy Bulletin is available to all active ISST Members enrolled on the ISST website.

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