The transition from military to civilian life is one of the most challenging periods for veterans, with 44–72% experiencing significant psychological distress. While PTSD and trauma-related conditions have been widely studied, less attention has been given to structured interventions that address the psychological, cultural, and identity shifts associated with leaving military service.

Schema Therapy (ST) is an integrative, evidence-based approach that targets the origins of psychological distress by challenging maladaptive beliefs and behaviours while supporting the reorganisation of life narratives. ST is uniquely suited to address the meaning-making challenges veterans face during the post-service transition, facilitating both emotional and identity-focused growth.

Rewire is a manualised, schema therapy group intervention developed by the presenter to address the psychological impacts of military service and support successful transition outcomes. Central to Rewire is the concept of the Military Mode—an adaptive coping mode developed through the military socialisation process, characterised by stoicism, hyper-vigilance, and unrelenting standards. While functional during service, this mode can become maladaptive post-discharge, limiting emotional connection, psychological flexibility, and negatively impacting wellbeing.

Rewire consists of 12 x 90-minute sessions integrating psychoeducation, experiential exercises, and reflective practice. A pilot study (currently under review) indicates that Rewire is feasible and acceptable, with preliminary outcomes suggesting improvements in psychological distress, life satisfaction, cognitive flexibility, and adaptive changes in coping, schema modes and early maladaptive schemas.

This presentation will:
• Introduce the Military Mode model and its relevance to post-service adjustment.
• Outline the Rewire program framework and session structure.
• Explore clinical insights and strategies for supporting veterans, including schema-informed approaches to identity reconstruction and growth after service.

Participants will gain practical knowledge in applying schema therapy principles to address identity and relational challenges in transitioning veterans, enhancing clinical assessment, intervention planning, and therapeutic outcomes. The workshop will also foster discussion of ethical and culturally sensitive approaches when working with this population, highlighting how vulnerability and strength can co-exist in post-military life.

Schema Therapy, developed by Dr Jeffrey Young, traditionally emphasises unmet emotional needs and early life experiences in the development of Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMS) and coping modes. However, adult environments - particularly workplaces embedded within strong organisational cultures - also function as powerful contexts that shape schema activation, perpetuation, and healing. Increasingly, clinicians encounter clients presenting with burnout, chronic workplace stress, moral distress, perfectionism, identity disturbance, and relational conflict that cannot be fully understood through childhood experiences alone.

Our research extends the Schema Therapy model by examining how organisational culture influences schema expression and mode activation in adulthood. The Schema-Focused Model of Occupational Stress and Work Dysfunctions (Bamber & Price, 2006) proposes that individuals may be unconsciously drawn to workplaces that replicate early relational environments, leading to the reenactment of Early Maladaptive Schemas and coping modes. Within these contexts, work-related stress, emotional exhaustion, interpersonal dysfunction, and maladaptive overcompensation can emerge through repeated schema activation (Simpson et al., 2019; Ray & Fritzon, 2024; Ray, 2025). Organisational hierarchies, performance contingencies, and implicit value systems can mirror attachment dynamics, reinforcing vulnerability patterns or, in some cases, facilitating corrective emotional experiences.

Building on this foundation, the Military Mode framework (Fry, 2021; Fry et al., 2023) illustrates how hierarchical, emotionally constrained, and mission-driven contexts shape early adult development and reinforce distinct coping styles. Many of these patterns persist following occupational transition, influencing identity integration, relationship functioning, and emotion regulation. These findings demonstrate that schemas are not static remnants of childhood but dynamic patterns continually evolving within adult systems.

This work highlights organisational culture as a significant developmental context across adulthood, capable of reinforcing or modifying long-standing emotional and cognitive patterns. Participants will learn to integrate organisational and systemic factors into schema-informed assessment and case conceptualisation. By situating individual distress within broader social ecosystems, clinicians can strengthen healthy occupational functioning, improve workplace adaptation, and support sustainable psychological change across both personal and professional domains.

Aligning with the theme Clinical Psychology & Diverse Contexts: People & Places, this presentation highlights how adult development unfolds within organisational ecosystems, demonstrating that schemas are continually shaped not only by early attachment experiences, but also by the cultures in which individuals live and work.

High-quality, ethical, and rigorous clinical practice does not occur in isolation. While evidence-based treatments, clinical skill, formulation, and therapeutic alliance remain central to treatment outcomes, the systems that surround clinicians, including: organisational structure, clinical governance, risk processes, and policy frameworks, are equally essential in enabling safe, ethical, and effective care.

As the newly implemented AHPRA Code of Conduct and evolving practice standards place increasing emphasis on systems-level responsibility, the profession must broaden its focus beyond individual clinical competence to the organisational environments that support it.

This presentation explores how policies and procedures function as the “quiet architecture” of ethical practice, translating professional codes and evidence-based guidelines into consistent, reliable action. Drawing on implementation science, clinical governance literature, and practice-based examples, we examine how organisational systems reduce cognitive load, strengthen ethical decision-making under pressure, support clinician wellbeing, and minimise risk. We discuss how practices often become aware of policy gaps only after adverse incidents, highlighting the need for proactive, anticipatory system design.

The session will outline a model of policy development that integrates research, code, ethics, legislation, and feedback-informed practice. We present common areas of vulnerability within psychological services, including: consent, risk management, documentation, continuity of care, and boundaries, to demonstrate how robust, well-implemented procedures enhance safety, improve client outcomes, and support clinicians to deliver clinical services with confidence and consistency.

Importantly, we highlight that policy is not a static administrative task but an ongoing evidence-based process that mirrors the scientist–practitioner model: observe, formulate, implement, evaluate, refine. Using case examples and data from practice audits and incident reviews, we illustrate how structured systems foster professional identity, reduce ethical drift, and create predictable, supportive environments that enhance therapeutic alliance. We also address barriers to implementation, offering practical strategies for engaging teams, embedding systems sustainably, and avoiding policy fatigue.