This volume offers guidelines for managing the therapist-patient relationship during crisis intervention and longer-term therapy with patients who exhibit borderline symptoms. Since to do no harm is the primary goal of any therapist who encounters such a patient, an appropriate therapist-patient relationship is crucial; moreover, skillful management of this relationship can, in itself, be the most effective and safe treatment. The authors present a conceptual model, based on self psychology and interpersonal theory, for reframing the borderline symptoms and the therapist's reactions. Case examples demonstrate effective relationship management and therapeutic interventions.

This volume offers guidelines for managing the therapist-patient relationship during crisis intervention and longer-term therapy with patients who exhibit borderline symptoms. Since to do no harm is the primary goal of any therapist who encounters such a patient, an appropriate therapist-patient relationship is crucial; moreover, skillful management of this relationship can, in itself, be the most effective and safe treatment. The authors present a conceptual model, based on self psychology and interpersonal theory, for reframing the borderline symptoms and the therapist's reactions. Case examples demonstrate effective relationship management and therapeutic interventions.

Covering the range of clinical presentations, treatments, and levels of care, Borderline Personality Disorder: A Clinical Guide, Second Edition, provides a comprehensive guide to the diagnosis and treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD). The second edition includes new research about BPD's relationship to other disorders and up-to-date descriptions of empirically validated treatments, including cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic approaches. Compelling new research also indicates a much better prognosis for BPD than previously known. A pioneer in the field, author John Gunderson, M.D., director of the Borderline Personality Disorder Center at McLean Hospital, draws from nearly 40 years of research and clinical experience. The guide begins with a clear and specific definition of BPD, informed by a nuanced overview of the historical evolution of the diagnosis and a thoughtful discussion of misdiagnosis. Offering a complete evaluation of treatment approaches, Dr. Gunderson provides an authoritative overview of the treatment options and describes in-depth each modality of treatment, including pharmacotherapy, family therapy, individual and group therapy, and cognitive-behavioral therapies. Unlike other works, this book guides clinicians in using multiple modalities, including the sequence of treatments and the types of changes that can be expected from each mode. The discussion of each treatment emphasizes empirically validated therapies, helping clinicians choose modalities that work best for specific patients. In addition, Borderline Personality Disorder: A Clinical Guide, Second Edition, also outlines therapeutic approaches for multiple settings, such as hospitalization, partial hospitalization or day hospital programs, and levels of outpatient care. Complementing the well-organized treatment guide are a series of informative and intriguing sidebars, providing insight into the subjective experience of BPD, addressing myths about therapeutic alliances in BPD, and questioning the efficacy of contracting for safety. Throughout the book, Dr. Gunderson recommends specific do's and don'ts for disclosing the diagnosis, discussing medications, meeting with families, starting psychotherapy, and managing suicidality. A synthesis of theory and practical examples, Borderline Personality Disorder: A Clinical Guide, Second Edition, provides a thorough and practical manual for any clinician working with BPD patients.

Management of Countertransference with Borderline Patients is an open and detailed discussion of the emotional reactions that clinicians experience when treating borderline patients. This book provides a systematic approach to managing countertransference that legitimizes the therapist's reactions and shows ways to use them therapeutically with the patient.

For the average clinician, individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often represent the most challenging, seemingly insoluble cases. This volume is the authoritative presentation of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), Marsha M. Linehan's comprehensive, integrated approach to treating individuals with BPD. DBT was the first psychotherapy shown in controlled trials to be effective with BPD. It has since been adapted and tested for a wide range of other difficult-to-treat disorders involving emotion dysregulation. While focusing on BPD, this book is essential reading for clinicians delivering DBT to any clients with complex, multiple problems. Companion volumes: The latest developments in DBT skills training, together with essential materials for teaching the full range of mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance skills, are presented in Linehan's DBT Skills Training Manual, Second Edition, and DBT Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, Second Edition. Also available: Linehan's instructive skills training videos for clients--Crisis Survival Skills: Part One, Crisis Survival Skills: Part Two, From Suffering to Freedom, This One Moment, and Opposite Action.

In this volume, Dr Volkan uses precise, strong and sometimes poetic language to present a treatment approach for work with borderline patients. His entire treatment method is set forth in six steps that reflect the patient's actual sequential experience in the therapeutic process. Unlike many therapists who write about therapy approaches, Volkman presents his work with nine psychosis-prone borderline patients who underwent his specific treatment plan, as well as a detailed account of a six-year, seven-month analysis of Pattie, which the author described as a long journey into an intrapsychic world.

Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) or borderline traits are among the most difficult for mental health practitioners to treat. They present an incredible range of symptoms, dysfunctional interpersonal interactions, provocative behavior in therapy, and comorbid psychiatric disturbances. So broad is this array that indeed the disorder constitutes a virtual model for the study of all forms of self-destructive and self-defeating behavior patterns. Psychotherapy With Borderline Patients: An Integrated Approach fills the need for a problem-focused, clinically oriented, and operationalized treatment manual that addresses major ongoing family factors that trigger and reinforce the patient's self-destructive or self-defeating behavior. In it, David Allen draws on the theoretical ideas and techniques of biological, family systems, psychodynamic, and cognitive-behavioral therapists to describe an integrated approach to adults with BPD or borderline traits in individual therapy. Innovative, practical, and specific, the book * helps therapists teach their patients, through the use of various role-playing techniques, strategies to alter the dysfunctional patterns of interaction with their families of origin that reinforce self-destructive behavior or chronic affective symptoms; * explains the nature and origins of the characteristic oscillation of hostile over- and underinvolvement between adults with BPD and those who served as their primary parental figures during childhood; * elucidates the nature and causes of the dysfunctional communication patterns in patients' families that lead to misunderstanding; and * provides concrete, clearly spelled out advice for therapists about how to deal with provocative patient behavior, how to minimize distorted descriptions by patients of significant others, how to avoid patients' misuse of medications, and how to respond to managed care restrictions on patients' insurance coverage. Psychotherapy With Borderline Patients: An Integrated Approach will be welcomed by all clinicians who work with these patients, whatever their training or theoretical orientation.