Proposal to confer the status of Honorary Member of the ISST on Wendy Behary
Although the ISST statutes allow Honorary Members to be put forward by the Executive Board for ratification by the GMA, so far this honour has never been conferred on any of our members. The present Board has decided to change this and to propose that Honorary Membership status be given to Wendy Behary. Wendy is very well known to a considerable portion of our membership but I invited her to give some details. What she wrote is a wonderful summary of her longstanding involvement with and contributions to schema therapy and the ISST. Here is what she wrote:
My relationship with Jeff Young started in 1989 when I met Jeff at the Aaron Beck Conference, Love is Never Enough. Jeff was introducing his "new" model: Schema-Focused Cognitive Therapy (which is what it was called back then). It was love at first listen, this model made sense, he was brilliant. I pushed my way to the stage during the break and asked him to sign my book, and "Where can I learn from you?!" He kindly invited me to come to his classroom at Columbia University the following week. There I met a small group of think-tank professional clinicians working with Jeff in the early phase of learning and developing ST. I couldn't believe I might be a part of this amazing group of talented individuals. We soon transitioned to the East 80th street location of the Cognitive Therapy Center of NYC, where we continued to meet, discuss cases, and be scrutinized by the mighty master. It was an exciting, inspiring and terrifying time.
Fast forward... Jeff invited me to co-present with him throughout the 90's and over time we became dear friends. By 1993 we were working on the development of an approach to work with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. My own work with this population (and all the triggering experiences that come with it) led to many late night conversations with Jeff about how to use the model to work with this treatment group. We practiced strategies and made two videotapes for training schema therapists (the Kim and Ron videos) that are still popular today! Thus began my designation as the Schema Therapy for Narcissism expert.
In the late 90's and early 2000's, we were offering Schema Therapy Training in NYC, which ultimately became a certification program. By 2010, the trainings were being offered primarily at my Center in NJ, and by 2012 the NYC Center closed its doors and Jeff and I combined our Institutes in NJ where we continue to co-facilitate an annual International training and certification program in Schema Therapy. We welcome candidates from around the globe.
In 2006 I attended the first International meeting of schema therapy colleagues, hosted by Poul Perris and Jeff Young in Stockholm. We were about 60 attendees. In 2007 we met again in Delft, about 100 attendees. And, by 2008 (in Coimbra) our ISST community was officially formed! I was selected by the organizers to be the Training and Certification Coordinator. And in 2010, I was elected President of the ISST Board, a most meaningful honor. I held this post for 2 terms.
By 2008, Jeff was becoming weary from his many years of travel and training abroad and asked me to take over a large portion of this work.
I happily accepted the opportunity to offer training around the world and to meet with schema therapy colleagues and friends. For the next 10 years, I would serve the ISST Board in various capacities, as well as travel to many amazing countries to offer training in Schema Therapy, with a special focus on Narcissism, Couples with issues of Narcissism, and other Complex Issues in treatment.
After my term as Training and Certification Coordinator and President of the Board, I went on to establish the ISST Brainstorming Group -- a group dedicated to the cultivation of new ideas in schema therapy, networking, disseminating ST across the globe and in the U.S. Here we founded the Ambassadors Program, a program that would allow enthusiastically devoted ST purveyors, in developing regions of the world, a scholarship for the opportunity to join us at our conferences and become further integrated in our ISST community. The Brainstormers also furthered the notion of a regular newsletter on varied topics of interest, to be offered as a benefit to ISST members. One of my signature interests in the Brainstorming Group was to bring more attention to the Spanish Speaking community around the world and in the U.S. Along with Carlos Rojas and Jordi Cid, the Spanish Speaking Consortium and Worldwide Training and Certification Program was formed and approved by Joan Farrell and the ISST Board. In Barcelona, 2017, I watched my colleagues (Carlos Rojas, Jordi Cid, and Matias Valente) offer the first ever schema therapy course in Spanish. The Spanish-Speaking program continues to grow with special emphasis in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, and in Miami, USA.
In the past 10 years, I also turned my attention to broadening my reach in the U.S.--- offering training through the PESI Speaker's Bureau (Professional Education Systems), the Psychotherapy Networker, and other organizations, which has afforded me the chance to generate new interest and awareness in schema therapy across this country.
Currently, I serve as the board-appointed chairperson for the Schema Therapy Development Programs Committee, as well as a member of the Quality Assurance Committee, and the Training and Certification Advisory Board. I remain stalwartly committed to protecting the integrity of Schema Therapy and to continue to find creative opportunities to spread the word about our brilliant model.
I am immensely grateful for the opportunities I have been granted and the friends I've made, and so proud to be part of this amazing global community of talented, inspiring, warm, and caring individuals who have touched my life in such profoundly important ways.
Furthermore, Wendy’s publications attest to the quality, conceptual clarity and clinical value of her academic contributions. Here they are listed in the order in which they appeared:
Young, J. and Behary, W., (1998). Schema Focused Therapy for Personality Disorders. In, Tarrier, N., Wells, A., & Haddock, G. (Eds.), Treating Complex Cases: The Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Approach, (pp. 340-377). Wiley.
Young, J., Zangwill, W. M., & Behary, W. T. (2002). Combining EMDR and Schema-Focused Therapy: The whole may be greater than the sum of the parts. In F. Shapiro (Ed.), EMDR as an Integrative Psychotherapy Approach, (pp. 181-208). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Behary, Wendy (2008) Disarming The Narcissist - Surviving and Thriving With The Self-Absorbed (1st Edition). New Harbinger Publications.
Behary, Wendy & Dieckmann, Eva, (2010). Schematherapie: Ein Ansatz zur Behandlung narzisstischer Persönlichkeitsstörungen, Translation: “Schema therapy: A Beginning for the Treatment of Narcissistic Personality Disturbances”, Germany.
Behary, Wendy, (May/June, 2010), ‘In Consultation’: The Way To Say It… Taking on Some of the Most Challenging Moments in the Treatment Room. Psychotherapy Networker.
Behary, W. and Dieckmann, E. (2011). Schema Therapy for Narcissism: The Art of Empathic Confrontation, Limit-Setting, and Leverage. In, Campbell, W. Keith, & Miller, Joshua D., (Eds), The Handbook of Narcissism and Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Theoretical Approaches, Empirical Findings, and Treatments. Wiley.
Behary, W., (2012). Schema Therapy for Narcissism. In, van Vreeswijk, M, Broersen, J, & Nadort, M, (Eds), The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Schema Therapy: Theory, Research and Practice, Wiley-Blackwell.
Behary, W., Dieckmann, E. (2013) The Art of Adaptive Re-Parenting in the Treatment of Narcissism. In, Ogrodniczuk, John S. (Ed.), Understanding and Treating Pathological Narcissism. American Psychological Association.
Behary, Wendy (2013). Disarming the Narcissist - Surviving and Thriving with the Self-Absorbed, New Harbinger Publications; 2nd edition.
Behary, Wendy (July/August 2013) Challenging The Narcissist, How to Find Pathways to Empathy. Psychotherapy Networker.
Behary, Wendy T. and Davis, Denise D (2014). Chapter 14, Narcissistic Personality Disorder. In, Beck, Aaron; Davis Denise; Freeman, Arthur (eds), Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders, 3rd Edition; Guilford.
It is a pleasure, therefore to recommend to the GMA that Wendy Behary be awarded Honorary Membership of the ISST.
David Edwards (President) on behalf of the Executive Board 14th August 2018
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International Society of Schema Therapy e.V. is a not-for-profit organization, Germany