Certifying in Schema Therapy with the International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST) gives therapists internationally recognised credibility, deeper clinical mastery, and access to a global community of expert practitioners. It’s a rigorous pathway that strengthens competence, enhances outcomes for complex clients, and opens doors to advanced roles in the field.

I pursued Advanced Certification in Schema Therapy some years ago after many years of practising schema therapy with my therapy clients. I then continued on to become an ISST Certified Supervisor so that I could share my schema therapy skills more broadly and assist my supervisees to pursue certification.

Like a lot of therapists, I assumed certification was a bit of a box ticking exercise, but nothing could prepare me for the depth of learning and improvement of my therapeutic skills that occurred through the process. I also gained entry into a warm and connected international community as an added bonus.

A Gold-Standard Credential

The International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST) is the global governing body for Schema Therapy training and certification. Their standards are internationally recognised, ensuring that certified therapists have completed high‑quality, evidence‑based training and supervision.
Certification through the ISST signals that a therapist has met strict requirements around coursework, supervised practice, and competency assessment. This includes completing an approved training program, receiving specialist supervision, and demonstrating proficiency across the model’s core skills.

When you hate social media or start to feel unhappy spending time there, the obvious solution for most people is to stop using it. Deactivate your profile, delete your accounts or have a long term social media detox.

But if you’re a business owner who relies on social media to market your business it’s not that simple. This is especially the case for therapists who have grown a personal brand off the back of social media platforms.

I know, because I’ve been there.

The thought of leaving social media can fill you with equal amounts of relief and dread because although you’ll get a break from all the things you’ve come to dislike, unless you have an alternative plan, you’re also going to lose revenue. The good news is, that relying solely on social media for marketing is a bad idea and unsustainable in the long term, so now is as good a time as ever to fix that.

In this blog, I’m going to share some strategies that can help you transition away from relying on social media for marketing to giving it up completely.

For me, it felt like I woke up one day and was allergic to social media. I felt instantly irritated when I opened platforms, I felt increasingly negative towards “people” and the constant stream of AI- generated content left me feeling short-changed. In reality, the romance began to end about two years prior.

In private practice, it’s easy to get caught up in the tasks of business growth such as marketing strategies, visibility, niche refinement, SEO, and all the moving parts that come with running a modern therapy business. These things matter, but they’re not what sustain a practice over the long term.

What truly creates stability, referrals, and a reputation that grows year after year is trust.

Trust is the invisible machine behind a thriving therapy business. It shapes how clients and referrers experience you, how they speak about you, and how confidently they engage in the therapeutic process.

When trust is strong, everything else becomes easier. When trust is weak, even the best marketing strategies struggle to gain traction.

The reason I encourage therapists to meet with referrers and peers in person regularly is because it’s much easier to build trust in person than it is online. However, trust practices can also be embedded into online interactions and marketing.

Below are the five core pillars of trust that form the backbone of a sustainable, ethical, and anchored practice that you can incorporate into your business..

If the actions you take in your business regularly leave you feeling frustrated, disappointed, or like a failure, it’s possible that you’re stuck in a cycle of reacting to outcomes.

Here’s some of examples of what a reactive outcome focus looks like for therapists:

Your networking efforts didn’t result in instant referrals and bookings and you get annoyed for wasting your time and money.

No one engaged with your post and you feel hopeless.

Your launch didn’t generate the sales you’d hoped and you want to give up.

I’m going to share how I moved out of a reactive outcomes focused business approach.

The solution for me was to focus on brand equity instead.

What this means is I saw every move I made in the business as an opportunity to build my brand equity, regardless of the outcome.

I refocused my attention on the on building brand equity.

The steps you need to take to make more money as a therapist. Nadene van der Linden provides strategies to grow your income as a therapist and how to scale your income beyond 1:1 therapy

If you’re a therapist & your social media content is not resulting in bookings or sales, make sure you’re getting this right.The biggest problem I see in the content of therapists I coach is they don’t start strong and “hook” their ideal clients’ attention.The content might be helpful or show expertise but if you don’t stop the scroll, the right people don’t see it.Worse still, it might even be considered boring.I’m going to give some therapist specific examples of how you can change your content so it stops the scroll below.

It’s frustrating when you can’t make connections with GPs due to gatekeepers. Here’s what you’re going to grow your private practice instead (& why there’s a silver lining).You’re going to create a brand so strong that clients want to work with you, not who their GP recommends. Instead of relying on referrers to send clients your way, which relies on the right client coming in the door, the GP being available & lots of moving pieces outside of your control, you’ll take charge of your business & be done with the middleman.

You’ve heard of burnout but what about being bored-out? This is a term I learned yesterday in an ABC news article and I instantly connected with it.

Conferences are a great place for therapists to network, show case their skills and stay up to date with research. They are also a prime time to have your schema patterns fire up.

One of the common struggles for therapists who want to develop additional income streams is confusion about what to offer. No one wants to create an offer that doesn’t sell. Here’s what worked for me.

When you put marketing out there and it doesn’t convert into clients and customers, it’s super frustrating.

Things I’m not doing in 2025 to take my business to the next level (based on strategy coaches have tried to sell me in 2024).

A lot of therapists I’m talking to say that their Number 1 concern right now is that not enough referrals are coming into their business.

2024 is my 12th year in sole private practice and it’s got me reflecting a little about what I’d do differently if I was starting now.

I’ll say it. Being a Therapist. Is. Hard. Therapists tend to focus on the positive so talking about how truly hard our profession is can feel wrong.

What if instead of doing something more to thrive, you needed to stop doing something? For those of you who have been to my bootcamps or worked with me, you know I talk about strategies and efforts we use that don’t work.