Travis Atkinson, LCSW

Travis Atkinson, LCSW, is Media Director of the Jeffrey Young Schema Therapy Association and founder of the Schema Therapy Training Center of New York and Loving at Your Best Marriage and Couples Counseling. He's a founding member of the International Society of Schema Therapy and received Honorary Lifetime Member status in 2020. Travis began training with Dr. Jeffrey Young in 1994. From 1997 to 2012, he served as a staff psychotherapist at the Cognitive Therapy Center of New York, where he worked directly with Dr. Young to co-develop Schema Therapy for Couples. What they created in the therapy room with actual couples now forms the foundation for how clinicians worldwide approach relationship wounds and repair. He helped Dr. Young establish the original Schema Therapy Institute in New York, serving as supervisor and trainer in the program. For over 25 years, Travis has trained therapists internationally across Italy, South Korea, the Netherlands, Brazil, Portugal, Russia, Austria, Scotland, and Spain. He chaired the ISST Schema Couples Therapy Workgroup from 2014 to 2017, advancing research and clinical training. Global membership quadrupled during his tenure as Media Coordinator on the ISST Executive Board (2014-2020). He holds advanced certifications as an Advanced Certified Schema Therapist, Supervisor, and Trainer; Certified Emotionally Focused Therapist and Supervisor (trained directly by Dr. Sue Johnson beginning in 2006, including 40 personal supervision sessions and two advanced externships); and Certified Gottman Method Couples Therapist (2006). He is also an Advanced Practitioner at Daniel Siegel's Mindsight Institute and a Certified Group Psychotherapist. He's a founding member of the New York Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy, where he served on the Executive Board. Travis co-authored the Schema Mode Inventory and wrote "Schema Therapy for Couples: Healing Partners in a Relationship" in The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Schema Therapy (2012). He is fluent in English and Dutch and maintains an active clinical practice while training therapists worldwide.

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.