PERSONAL STATEMENT-Amir Askari- Running for Research and science coordinator

Dear colleagues

I am writing this short autobiography of my scientific and executive activities in schema therapy for you, so that you can have a clear overview of my personal and professional background in the 2022 ISST Elections Committee.

I was born in 1979 in Tehran, Iran. Since the first 8 years of my childhood were spent in the war between Iran and Iraq and I witnessed the extremely traumatic consequences of the war in my society, I hate any kind of war. I follow schema therapy in the direction of peace between people and nations and I hope that one day my country, the Middle East and all the people of the world will be in peace and tranquility. I have attended some Ukrainian ISST meetings and have expressed my deep opposition to Russia's war against Ukraine. 

I believe that through schema therapy and healthy adult development, we can achieve a peaceful life and respect each other's opinions, so that children grow up without suffering and harm and women receive their human rights. I believe that any racial, ethnic, sexual and gender discrimination can be ended with schema therapy.

I have attended the University of Mysore in India, where I have earned my master's and PhD degrees in clinical psychology. India is the biggest democracy in the world, where I studied psychology, yoga, meditation and mindfulness for 7 years.

I am a supervisor/trainer and advanced degree certified schema therapist by the International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST). 

I am the head of the Developmental Project of Schema Therapy (DPST) in Iran and the Middle-East since 2012, which is part of the projects overseen by the Center for Advanced Studies in Mental Health (CASMH). In the implementation of DPST goals, schema therapy training was conducted in six major cities of Iran, including Tehran (2012), Rasht (2014), Shiraz (2015), Ahvaz (2016), Bushehr (2017) and Mashhad (2018). Also, in 2017, for the first time, with the attendance of 44 people, the first ISST Standard Level Training Course was held in Tehran. The second ISST Standard Level Training Course was held in 2019 with the participation of 27 people. According to the plans, the third Course was supposed to be held in 2021, which was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Corona pandemic made us hold ST Educational Programs online. Two specialized Retraining Courses and the holding of The First Online International Meetings in 2022 are among the activities of the last six months.

I am also the founder and director of the Iranian Institute of Schema Therapy (IIST) since 2019. The Iranian Institute of Schema Therapy is the only officially licensed institution for ST in Iran that has 2650 expert members until now (OCT 2022). In the field of Educational/Cultural Cooperation in schema therapy, I have invited ISST Executive Board Members and supervisors to travel to Tehran about 15 times. These international interactions have been very impressive in the development and progress of schema therapy in Iran.

I am an executive board member of the Iranian Clinical Psychology Association (ICPA) since 2016. I tried to make schema therapy a large part of clinical research in dissertations, theses and research projects.  Also, I have carried out an extensive program for the standardization of various schema therapy questionnaires. All schema therapy books that have been translated, edited and printed under my supervision have been published with the permission of the authors and have an official permission from the publisher, although there is no Copyright in Iran.  

I have published numerous articles in international journals and has made many speeches in different countries. Besides doing psychotherapy with disordered personality patients and also counseling and conflict resolving with the couples, I attend to teaching, doing research, writing, translating, and editing. 

In 2021, after ten years of study and research, I finally authored the book "New Concepts of Schema Therapy (The 6 Coping Styles), and Wendy Behary and Jeffrey Young wrote the preface for it, and Eckhard Roediger also wrote the foreword for it. 

My interest in scientific and research activities made me announce my readiness for the position of Scientific Research Coordinator. If I am elected as the scientific Research Coordinator, I would do my very best develop the scientific/research activities in ST extensively and create suitable conditions for the implementation of fundamental and necessary researches. Also, I will provide full support to amateur researchers in publishing articles in academic journals. I believe that what will advance schema therapy will be its unique and completely scientific researches.

Finally, I would like to thank all those who have held this position in the past years.

Peace

Amir Askari