Event Review: “ACT and Schema Therapy: Can They Really Work Together”

By Amy Campbell, Psychologist, ANZACBS Member

The final ANZ ACBS (WA) Pub Talk for 2018, ACT & Schema Therapy: Can They Really Work Together?, lived up to its hype. The sold out event had the ambience of a sold out rock concert, with chatter of how everyone had secured their ticket. In true ACBS community fashion, seating had been passed over to make room for more members to attend and everyone huddled around to learn.

We were introduced to our speakers, Mitch Hart; Clinical Psychologist, ACT trainer and Chris Hayes; Clinical Psychologist, Schema Therapy trainer, under the sparkle of an old school disco ball. From there we were introduced to several working love affairs, that of Hart and Hayes who met in 2003 and then the skills of ACT and Schema working collaboratively.

Hayes reminded us that Schema Therapy had been designed for treatment resistant clients and that it is “not for everyone”. We were then invited to work together noticing the consistencies and inconsistencies of the models. Hayes and Hart challenged and encouraged flexibility i

n the room of clinicians, breaking down the adherence to one therapy or another and opening the conversation to collaboration and commonalities.

The talk inspired questions and a desire to learn more, but more than that, it provided a great space to get together with members of the ANZ ACBS (WA) community. A space to connect, learn, seek and share. Thank you to Chris and Mitch for sharing their knowledge and opening up the conversation.