Prof. David Edwards

• Founder of Schema Therapy South Africa
• Professor at Rhodes University
• Certified as a schema therapist and trainer for individual schema therapy and schema therapy for couples by the International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST). Her was President from 2016 – 2020 and currently serves on ISST committees.
• Registered as a Clinical Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa.
• An Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and registered as a Clinical Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of the United Kingdom.
• A Diplomate and Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies which provides training and sets standards for Cognitive Therapy as developed by Aaron Beck.

He has a longstanding interest in psychotherapy integration and has experience with expressive approaches to psychotherapy through drama, dance, sculpture, painting and drawing, particularly within the humanistic and transpersonal traditions. In his research, he has promoted the role of case study methodology in the development of applied clinical science and used case studies to provide a contextualized evidence-base for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in South Africa.

He was fortunate to be connected to the beginnings of schema therapy when he attended seminars with Jeffrey Young while training in cognitive therapy at the University of Pennsylvania in 1984.  His enthusiasm was refreshed when, at a conference in Barcelona in 2007, he met Arnoud Arntz. one of the leaders in the Dutch group and attended a workshop presented by him the following year. He joined the newly formed International Society for Schema Therapy (ISST) and is certified as a schema therapist and trainer in individual ST and in ST for couples.  He was President of the International Society for Schema Therapy for two terms from 2016-2020.

David Edwards’ early publications on the use of imagery in cognitive therapy were influential in promoting the integration of imagery methods into cognitive and behavioral psychotherapy and anticipated current use of these techniques in schema therapy. He has also written on the historical roots of schema therapy. His interest in historical perspectives on psychotherapy arose from reflection on his own experience and from writing an article and a book chapter on the history of imagery in psychotherapy.