Faculty & Affiliates

Marsha Blank, MA, LCSW, began her career as a Schema Therapist at the Cognitive Therapy Center of New York/The Schema Therapy Institute, directed by Dr. Jeffrey Young. She has expertise in working with Personality Disorders, Attachment Issues, Anxiety Disorders, and Intergenerational Trauma. Marsha has worked extensively with pregnant and postpartum women, mother/infant dyads, and families. Marsha is an Advanced Certified Schema Therapist, supervisor, and trainer in Individual Adult and Child/Adolescent Schema Therapy and a Certified Developmental Somatic Psychotherapist. Marsha incorporates movement and somatic techniques in her practice of Schema Therapy. ​ parentserv@gmail.com 917-974-2789

Jeff Conway is a founding member of The International Society for Schema Therapy and the current President of the International Society of Schema Therapy. He is Chair of the ISST Committee on Supervisor Skills Training, serves on the ISST Committee for Training and Education, and has been a Certified Advanced Level Trainer-Supervisor since 2008. Mr. Conway has a private practice in Mid-Town Manhattan where he works with Individuals, Couples, and Groups. Mr. Conway is trained in Emotion Focused Therapy, an innovative model for couples therapy, and is a founder of The NY Center for Emotion-Focused Therapy.  He is also a Certified Group Therapist and leads a Psychotherapy Group for Gay Men and a Psychotherapy Group for Male Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse. Mr. Conway's most recent work involves an in-depth exploration of codependency and the Enmeshment Schema.

Salvatore Corbisiero, Ph.D. (Switzerland), is the head of the day clinic of the Lucerne Psychiatric Hospital in Lucerne, Switzerland. He is a trainer, teaching supervisor, and psychotherapist in cognitive-behavioral and Schema Therapy. In addition, he is a certified DBT therapist. He has been working with adult ADHD, emotional dysregulation, personality disorders, and trans* identity for many years and is a member of the professional group Trans* in Switzerland. He is also the author of various scientific papers.

Dr. Joan Farrell is the Codirector of the Schema Therapy Institute Midwest – Indianapolis Center and Research Director of the Center for Borderline Personally Disorder Treatment and Research, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). She has served for 25 years as a Clinical Professor in Psychiatry at Indiana University School of Medicine, where she developed and directed an inpatient schema therapy (ST) program for borderline personality disorder (BPD). Dr. Farrell is also a coprincipal investigator of an international study of ST for BPD underway in five countries. She was the principal investigator of a study of Group ST for BPD, for which she was awarded a National Institute of Mental Health grant. A Certified Schema Therapist Trainer/Supervisor in individual and group ST, she has served as the Coordinator for Training and Certification on the Executive Board of the International Society for Schema Therapy. Dr. Farrell is the codeveloper of group ST and coauthor of three books: Experiencing Schema Therapy from the Inside Out - A Self-Practice/Self-Reflection Workbook for Therapists; The Schema Therapy Clinician’s Guide and Group Schema Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder. She has also published numerous research articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. Dr. Farrell is a member of the American Psychological Association. A more complete biography may be found here.

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Dr. Peregrine Kavros is the Director of the Schema Therapy Institute Southeast in Hillsborough, NC. As an Advanced Schema Therapist Trainer/Supervisor, Dr. Kavros is committed to introducing Schema Therapy to therapists worldwide, particularly in the Southeastern United States. Dr. Kavros was first introduced to Schema Therapy in New York. She found that Schema Therapy, as a developmental integrative therapeutic model, matched well with her clients whether they were undergoing a life change, wanted to improve their relationships, or modify aspects of their personalities. Within the International Society for Schema Therapy, Dr. Kavros serves as Chair of the Ethics and Conflict Resolution Committee and is an active member of the Training and Certification Advisory Subcommittee and the Couples Special Interest Group.  Before Dr. Kavros moved to North Carolina in 2015, she held academic appointments at Columbia University and the New York University Langone Medical Center. She has published in peer-reviewed journals and has authored book chapters. Dr. Kavros is a National Registered Health Psychologist and certified as a Sex Therapist by AASECT (American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists). She is a member of: International Society for Schema Therapy American Psychological Association - Divisions International Psychology and Society for Religion and Psychology Society for Sex Educators and Therapists Society for Advancement of Sexual Health, World Professional Association for Transgender Health North Carolina Psychological Association New York State Psychological Association Society for Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration. As an ordained Episcopal Priest, Dr. Kavros is a Pastoral Associate at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Hillsborough. Dr. Kavros nurtures her contented child through the beautiful gardens and fantastic creatures on Hyacinth Farm (click here to be taken to this website), the 20-acre farm where she lives with her husband, Harry (the photographs featured on this website were either taken on the farm, or on a recent trip through Northern Greece), their rescue Theo, and a large number of chickens and guineas. She is a member of the Hillsborough Garden Club, one of the primary contributors in advancing the pollination effort in the United States, the Junior League of Durham and Orange Counties, and other non-profits whose missions are driven by conservation, sustainability, and food scarcity.  A more complete curriculum vitae is available upon request.

Ji Young Kim has over 20 years of counseling experience. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the USA, and a Licensed Social Worker in South Korea. She provides counseling services to individuals couples, and families. Ji Young Kim has also trained with Dr. Joan Farrell in Group Therapy. Ms. Kim has been dedicated to group therapy since 2014 because she believes that group therapy is a small social community that provides more opportunities to reflect on patients' relationship dynamics with friends and family. In a safe group setting, people can explore their past traumas, acknowledge their individual needs, and engage in self-healing. Strengthening their inner, healthy adult selves allows them to overcome self-destructive behaviors and focus on meeting their essential needs while cultivating a positive relationship with themselves and their surroundings.

Nicola is a Clinical Social Worker with over 20 years of experience supporting individuals with challenging and complex life circumstances. She has a Master of Social Work, is a Clinical Social Worker, is a member of the Australian College of Social Workers, and is certified by the ISST as an advanced Schema Therapist Trainer-Supervisor. In addition to being committed to providing equitable access to therapy for those who are socially disadvantaged, Nicola also works at a leading South Australian University as a counselor working with a diverse student population. She is particularly interested in adapting Schema Therapy to short-term intervention to fit within Medicare provisions in Australia.

Agata is a psychologist (MA), a Certified CBT Therapist, a Certified Advanced Level Schema Therapist, a Schema Therapy Supervisor/Trainer in individual therapy, and a Couples Schema Therapist involved in the certification process. Within the International Society of Schema Therapy, Agata served as a member of the Individual Schema Therapy Certification Committee in 2021-2022 and is an active member of the Couples Special Interest Group and Trauma Special Interest Group. Agata provides schema therapy treatment and supervision. She works with adults, specializing in long-term difficulties like personality disorders or dysfunctional personality traits resulting from childhood trauma or other adverse life experiences, recurrent depression, and anxiety disorders. She is passionate about how people grow from their problems and develop and is eager to accompany them, so she mainly uses the schema therapy model now. Agata also teaches schema therapy at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Poland in a 4-year CBT psychotherapy certification program. She regularly provides schema therapy self-practice/self-reflection workshops for her students. Agata has been in the psychotherapy field for over ten years. She started her adventure with psychotherapy, working with domestic violence victims. Before moving entirely to her private practice and teaching, she had worked in a daily care unit in a psychiatry hospital in Warsaw, conducting CBT group therapy for five years, mainly for those with mood, anxiety, and personality disorders. To expand her knowledge and experience, she also completed an internship at an inpatient unit in one of the biggest psychiatry hospitals in Warsaw. Agata lived and studied psychology and psychotherapy in Cambridge, MA, for one year in 2008-2009, and it was a great adventure for her.

Lynda Parry is a Clinical Psychologist who has been in private practice for 34 years. Initially an early childhood educator, she has a passion for developmental psychology, leading to 4 years of graduate study and accreditation in contemporary psychodynamic psychotherapy. Her thesis on Dreams: Remembering, Reviewing and Reconstructing the Self was awarded the Ron Lee award for best thesis at graduation. She went on to present her paper Is Dream Analysis Obsolete? At the 6th World Congress for Psychotherapy in Sydney, Australia in 2011. Lynda is trained in psychodrama and worked at The Psychodrama Centre, Sydney, for ten years. The experience of running psychodrama groups, training in psychodynamic psychotherapy and CBT, and knowledge of early development have stood her in good stead for embracing Schema Therapy.  ​ She is an accredited advanced individual and group schema therapist, a trainer and supervisor, and a Director of the Schema Therapy Centre of NSW. Lynda’s commitment to schema therapy led her to be Chair of the ISST Quality Assurance Committee, a member of the ISST Ethics Committee, and ISST co-regional training coordinator for Australia. ​ Lynda runs the ISST-accredited training modules for those wishing to learn the model and a popular annual workshop for experienced schema therapists, “Experiencing Schema Therapy from the Inside Out.” ​ Her other passion is the dreaming process, particularly how it connects to memory consolidation and early maladaptive schemas. The annual webinar by Lynda, “Schema Therapy with Dreams and Nightmares, “is attended by schema therapists across the globe. ​ Her article Schema Therapy and Dreams: Accessing The Vulnerable Child was published in the ISST Bulletin in December 2018.​

Poul Perris, MD (Sweden), is the Swedish Institute for CBT & Schema Therapy director in Stockholm, Sweden. The Institute is a private training center with University status and offers psychotherapy training programs at various professional levels, combined with a clinical outpatient setting. Dr. Perris served as the President of the Swedish CBT association from 2010-2016 and has contributed to making Schema Therapy an integral part of Sweden's national mental health services.

Eshkol Rafaeli is a professor of clinical psychology at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, where he directs the Affect and Relationships Lab. Before joining BIU, the lab and Eshkol were at Barnard College, Columbia University. With funding from NIMH, ISF, BSF, the Templeton Foundation, and others, Eshkol and his lab have conducted primary research on personality, affect, and relational processes in individuals and dyads. In recent years, Eshkol has increasingly turned to the study of psychotherapy processes; at present, these involve a treatment personalization study of single-session interventions (in collaboration with colleagues at UC-Berkeley) and a study examining changes in self-structure surrounding brief imagery-based CBT for anxiety (in partnership with colleagues at Trier University). Eshkol is the co-author (together with David Bernstein and Jeffrey Young) of the 2010 Routledge book on Distinctive Features of Schema Therapy. He continues to be very interested in using, teaching, supervising, and researching this approach.

Daria Rakhubovska is an Advanced Certified Schema Therapist, Schema Therapy Supervisor, and Couples Therapist (currently in the process of obtaining certification). She is also trained in CBT, Compassion-Focused Therapy, and Clinical Psychoanalysis. Daria is the Chair of the ISST Resource Committee for Members in Crisis (ISST RCMC). Together with her RCMC team, she is helping nearly 500 Ukrainian mental health specialists get professional support from many ISST community members. As a Schema Therapist, Daria works with adults, specializing in eating disorders, personality disorders, complex trauma, and working with couples. She started her career as a CBT practitioner but soon noticed that some clients did not respond to standard CBT protocols. This led her first to Compassion-Focused Therapy training, Clinical Psychoanalysis, and Schema Therapy. Daria is fascinated by the method's focus on limited reparenting and meeting clients’ emotional needs. Daria is trying to integrate schema therapy into her life and nurture her Happy Child. In her free time, she enjoys dancing Argentinean Tango, reading, traveling, visiting museums and art galleries, and meeting with friends.

Dr. Patricia Escudero Rotman has practiced for more than 25 years in the United States (mostly New York City) and Argentina. She is a Clinical Psychologist licensed in Argentina, holds an American Ph.D. in Health and Human Services (with a Specialization in Psychology) and a New York License in Social Work. She has trained in many schools of thought but has specialized in Cognitive-Behavioral Psychology and Schema Therapy. Dr. Rotman is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. As a faculty member, she created the Schema Therapy class for third and fourth-year residents. After living in the US for 23 years, Dr. Escudero Rotman moved back to Argentina, where she founded and directed an official Schema Therapy training in Buenos Aires. Since her arrival, she has given many ST presentations to professional associations in Latin America (e.g., the Association of Argentinean Psychiatry and the Argentinean Medical Association). She co-founded the ISST Trauma SIG and has coordinated this group since 2016. Her areas of expertise include trauma work, multicultural issues, and the integration of both CBT and Schema Therapy. She does online and in-person therapy, clinical supervision, and training.

Dr. Louise Sainsbury, Consultant Clinical & Forensic Psychologist.  Advanced Level Certified Schema Therapist and Supervisor Louise is experienced in delivering individual and group schema therapy in a highly secure forensic setting, working with difficulties considered complex personality disorder and psychosis.  She is interested in performing highly avoidant presentations and overcompensation/BPD and integrates attachment theory within Schema Therapy. She is an Advanced Certified Individual and Group Schema Therapist and supervisor/trainer, specializing in difficulties given the label severe personality disorder and forensic schema therapy.   Louise is a consultant with 'Schema Therapy Solutions UK and provides accredited schema training and supervision.

Susan Simpson, is a Clinical Psychologist and Clinical academic at a public outpatient Eating Disorder Service in Scotland. She is Director of Schema Therapy Scotland, and Co-director of the Global Institute of Eating Disorders. Susan has provided training in Schema Therapy for over 20 years, and is actively involved in research in this field, with a particular focus on improving treatments for people with complex eating disorders and on therapist wellbeing and preventing burnout. She has a longstanding interest in the nexus of human well-being and connectedness to nature. She is co-author and editor of Schema Therapy for Eating Disorders (Routledge, 2019) and Cambridge Guide to Schema Therapy (Cambridge University Press, 2023). Her publications can be found at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Susan-Simpson-2/research.

Mandy Walsh is a Certified Advanced Schema Trainer/Supervisor /Therapist for Individuals and Couples. She provides training and supervision for certification as well as stand-alone CPD workshops via her two ISST-approved training centers:  Schema Therapy Wales (for Individuals) and Schema Therapy for Couples UK Mandy co-founded Talk in the Bay in 2008, where she is the principal director.  Talk in the Bay is a well-established therapeutic practice in Cardiff, UK, and provides therapies, supervision, and training locally and online to global clients. Mandy works in partnership with assisting small, medium, and large organizations with their well-being strategies to help improve the emotional health of their workforce. This is done via training, supervision, and short and longer-term therapy models for employees. Often, the schemas, modes, and unhealthy coping patterns prevent employees from thriving in their work environment.  Before becoming a psychotherapist, Mandy worked for 19 years in an Investment Bank where she established and managed a regional team; this experience has proved invaluable when working with corporate clients. Mandy discovered Schema Therapy after qualifying with a CBT Masters Degree and working at an agency for survivors of rape and childhood sexual abuse.  She realized many clients she was working with were not responding to the change she was trying to help them make. After attending a Jeffrey Young workshop in London, she realized schema therapy would make a difference to her practice and has successfully introduced this into all her therapy sessions. Mandy’s passion is working with couples and individuals struggling in their relationships, specifically where one or both partners have experienced childhood trauma or unmet emotional needs. Mandy is passionate about providing supervision and sharing her knowledge of schema therapy with others. Mandy supports her community via Affordable Talk, a CIC (nonprofit) where she serves as a director and member.  Affordable Talk provides funded and low-fee therapies to those unable to afford standard treatment or counseling, specifically in the Cardiff Bay community.  Mandy is an active committee member for the Schema Therapy for Couples Group and the Schema Therapy Group for Organisational Development. In striving to be in Healthy Adult and happy child mode, Mandy spends time outdoors where she can swim, walk, and jog. She enjoys this most when connecting with the sea and sun on the island of Mallorca. Back home in Cardiff, Mandy enjoys walking in the beautiful Welsh countryside. But above all, Mandy values family time and is most content with her family around her.​