Speakers Style II – Jeffrey Young Schema Therapy Association

LISTEN TO THE Keynote Speakers

Paul Kasyanik, PhD

Paul Kasyanik, PhD, is the director and co-founder of the Schema Therapy Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia. He is an Advanced Certified Schema Therapist, Supervisor, and Trainer in Individual, Groups, and Children-Adolescents Schema Therapy. Since 2016, Paul has served as Science & Research Coordinator and from 2018 to 2020 as Certification Coordinator on the Executive Board of the ISST. From 2020 to 2025, he led as chair of the Training and Certification Advisory Board of the ISST. He has been treating patients, training professionals, and supervising psychotherapists for over 45 years. His advanced training workshops have been highly. Rated by hundreds of practitioners across Europe. Paul’s multifaceted experience enables him to offer innovative training that integrates practical skills with a wide range of experiential interventions, from sensory motor therapy to fairy tales and life rescripting, all grounded in developmental psychology and consistent with the Schema Therapy model. He has presented advanced Schema Therapy training at EABCT and ISST Conferences and Summer Schools since 2012, as well as in training programs in 14 countries, significantly impacting the development of schema therapy internationally.

Robin Spiro, LCSW

Robin Spiro, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and international trainer based in Springfield, New Jersey. She has over 27 years of clinical experience specializing in Complex Trauma, Dissociative Disorders, and Schema Therapy. She is an Advanced Certified Schema Therapist and a Certified Individual Schema Trainer/Supervisor. Robin’s clinical work focuses on integrating schema therapy with other trauma treatment models, including EMDR, somatic therapies, and Internal Family Systems. She has presented at ISST international conferences and has lectured internationally on complex trauma and dissociative disorders within the schema therapy framework. Robin is chair of the Supervisory Skills Development Committee within the International Society of Schema Therapy. She leads online supervision groups for clinicians working with complex trauma and dissociation, providing advanced training and clinical guidance in these specialized areas. Robin’s training initiatives span multiple countries, where she shares her expertise in adapting schema therapy for clients presenting with trauma-related disorders and dissociative symptoms.

LISTEN TO THE Event Speakers

Joan Farrell, PhD

Dr. Joan Farrell, PhD, is a clinical psychologist, researcher, and trainer, widely recognized for her pioneering contributions to Group Schema Therapy (GST). She co-developed the GST model alongside Ida Shaw, and their collaborative work has significantly expanded the accessibility and effectiveness of Schema Therapy, especially for complex and treatment-resistant conditions. Joan served as Research Director for the Center for Borderline Personality Disorder Treatment and Research at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis and as a clinical professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine for 25 years. She has led or contributed to numerous randomized controlled trials supporting the efficacy of Schema Therapy. Her research has helped establish Schema Therapy as an evidence-based treatment for borderline personality disorder and other complex mental health conditions. A founding member and certified supervisor/trainer in individual and group ST with the International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST), Joan has played a crucial role in global training initiatives, particularly in training therapists to deliver Schema Therapy in group formats. She is co-director of the Schema Therapy Institute – Cleveland and served as Training & Certification Coordinator on the ISST Executive Board 2012-2018. She has written four books on ST: Group Schema Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: A Step-by-Step Treatment Manual, The Schema Therapy Clinician’s Guide, Experiencing ST from the Inside Out: A Self-Practice-Self-Reflection Workbook for Therapists, and The Deliberate Practice of Schema Therapy, which are widely used in clinical settings and training programs.

Paul Kasyanik, PhD

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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.