Sara Trace, PhD

Sara earned her B.S. in Neuroscience from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. She completed her M.S. and Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, where she concentrated in health psychology. Her graduate research and clinical training focused on eating disorders, psychological assessment, the genetic epidemiology of psychiatric illness, and obesity treatment and prevention.

She completed her predoctoral clinical internship at Yale University in the Department of Psychiatry, specializing in neuropsychology and assessment, followed by a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Department of Psychiatry’s Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders. There, she developed advanced expertise in treating complex psychopathology and integrating cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, and schema-based approaches to promote long-term recovery.

Sara is particularly interested in how early maladaptive schemas shape self-concept, body image, and interpersonal functioning—core factors in eating disorders and related conditions. Her work reflects a schema-informed understanding of emotion, identity, and attachment in the therapeutic process.

She is an active member of the American Psychological Association, the Academy for Eating Disorders, and the American Academy of Psychotherapists.

11.15 AM - 12.15 PM

Friday Dec 5th

The Missing Link in Couples Therapy: How Schema Therapy Unlocks the Breakthrough Other Models Can’t

Every couples therapist knows this pair. They have mastered every tool, naming their attachment wounds mid-argument, using flawless “I” statements, and tracking their cycles with precision. Yet one glance, one tone, one Saturday morning in the produce aisle, and everything falls apart.

Research tells the same story. Even in the best outcome studies, 30 to 40 percent of couples fail to sustain gains. The problem is not a lack of skill. Many of these partners are driven by schema-based dynamics that traditional attachment or behavioral models cannot reach.

These are not avoiders running from fear. They are overcompensators who attack vulnerability itself. Contempt, control, and punitive defenses protect against shame so deeply rooted that safety alone will not soften them. Schema Therapy explains why. The attachment injuries we try to repair are symptoms of unhealed schemas that keep recreating the wound.

This presentation teaches you how to recognize when schemas, not skills, drive the cycle and how to intervene where change truly begins. Through the Healthy Mode Triad, Connection Dialogues, and imagery rescripting for couples, participants will learn how to go beyond pattern management and foster real schema healing that lasts.

11.15 AM - 12.15 PM

Thursday Dec 4th

PARTS OF SELF IN SCHEMA THERAPY AND INTERNAL FAMILY SYSTEMS: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

Discover how Schema Therapy and IFS each understand the “parts” that shape our inner world. While both models explore internal dynamics, Schema Therapy offers a stronger theoretical base and empirical support for lasting change.

Joan Farrell, Ph.D. and Sara Trace, Ph.D. will show how each approach works with complex cases like borderline personality disorder and eating disorders, and demonstrate techniques to foster emotional awareness, integration, and healing.

Learning Objectives:

Deepen understanding of clients’ “parts of self.”
Apply mode interventions for meaningful change.