The accompanying manual to Dissociation Model of Borderline Personality Disorder. This manual offers therapists and patients a user-friendly guide to general principles of treatment via case examples, therapeutic conversations, and common comorbid problems. Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) has a suicide rate similar to schizophrenia and major depression, but for many years, it was considered intractable. The Conversational Model is scientifically-based on the research data described in Meares’s Dissociation Model of Borderline Personality Disorder, and offers unique treatment protocols for the trauma associated with BPD. Rich with clinical tips and case examples, this book will help a range of mental health professionals working with patients suffering from this debilitating disorder.

Russell Meares explores one of the fundamental issues of borderline personality disorder: dissociation & a lack of sense of self.

Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: A Clinical Guide presents a model of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and its treatment that is based on contemporary psychoanalytic object relations theory as developed by the leading thinker in the field, Otto Kernberg, M.D., who is also one of the authors of this insightful manual. The model is supported and enhanced by material on current phenomenological and neurobiological research and is grounded in real-world cases that deftly illustrate principles of intervention in ways that mental health professionals can use with their patients. The book first provides clinicians with a model of borderline pathology that is essential for expert assessment and treatment planning and then addresses the empirical underpinnings and specific therapeutic strategies of transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP). From the chapter on clinical assessment, the clinician learns how to select the type of treatment on the basis of the level of personality organization, the symptoms the patient experiences, and the areas of compromised functioning. In order to decide on the type of treatment, the clinician must examine the patient's subjective experience (such as symptoms of anxiety or depression), observable behaviors (such as investments in relationships and deficits in functioning), and psychological structures (such as identity, defenses, and reality testing). Next, the clinician learns to establish the conditions of treatment through negotiating a verbal treatment contract or understanding with the patient. The contract defines the responsibilities of each of the participants and defines what the reality of the therapeutic relationship is. Techniques of treatment interventions and tactics to address particularly difficult clinical challenges are addressed next, equipping the therapist to employ the four primary techniques of TFP (interpretation, transference analysis, technical neutrality, and use of countertransference) and setting the stage for and guiding the proper use of those techniques within the individual session. What to expect in the course of long-term treatment to ameliorate symptoms and to effect personality change is covered, with sections on the early, middle, and late phases of treatment. This material prepares the clinician to deal with predictable phases, such as tests of the frame, impulse containment, movement toward integration, episodes of regression, and termination. Finally, the text is accompanied by supremely instructive online videos that demonstrate a variety of clinical situations, helping the clinician with assessment and modeling critical therapeutic strategies. The book recognizes that each BPD patient presents a unique treatment challenge. Grounded in the latest research and rich with clinical insight, Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder: A Clinical Guide will prove indispensable to mental health professionals seeking to provide thoughtful, effective care to these patients.

Diagnosing Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in young people has long been a tough call for clinicians, either for fear of stigmatizing the child or confusing the normal mood shifts of adolescence with pathology. Now, a recent upsurge in relevant research into early-onset BPD is inspiring the field to move beyond this hesitance toward a developmentally nuanced understanding of the disorder. The Handbook of Borderline Personality Disorder in Children and Adolescents reflects the broad scope and empirical strengths of current research as well as promising advances in treatment. This comprehensive resource is authored by veteran and emerging names across disciplines, including developmental psychopathology, clinical psychology, child psychiatry, genetics and neuroscience in order to organize the field for an integrative future. Leading-edge topics range from the role of parenting in the development of BPD to trait-based versus symptom-based assessment approaches, from the life-course trajectory of BPD to the impact of the DSM-5 on diagnosis. And of particular interest are the data on youth modifications of widely used adult interventions, with session excerpts. Key areas featured in the Handbook: The history of research on BPD in childhood and adolescence. Conceptualization and assessment issues. Etiology and core components of BPD. Developmental course and psychosocial correlates. Empirically supported treatment methods. Implications for future research, assessment and intervention. The Handbook of Borderline Personality Disorder in Children and Adolescents is a breakthrough reference for researchers and clinicians in a wide range of disciplines, including child and school psychology and psychiatry, social work, psychotherapy and counseling, nursing management and research and personality and social psychology.

Innovative clinicians share their experiences integrating Polyvagal Theory into their treatment models. Clinicians who have dedicated their work to bringing the benefits of the Polyvagal Theory to a range of clients have come together to present Polyvagal Theory in a creative and personal way. Chapters on a range of topics from compassionate medical care to optimized therapeutic relationships to clinician's experiences as parents extract from the theory the powerful influence and importance of cases and feelings of safety in the clinical setting. Additionally, there are chapters which: elaborate on the principle of safety in clinical practice with children with abuse histories explain the restorative consequences of movement, rhythm, and dance in promoting social connectedness and resilience in trauma survivors explains how Polyvagal Theory can be used to understand the neurophysiological processes in various therapies discuss dissociative processes and treatments designed to experience bodily feelings of safety and trust examine fear of flying and how using positive memories as an active "bottom up" neuroceptive process may effectively down-regulate defense shed light on the poorly understood experience of grief Through the insights of innovative and benevolent clinicians, whose treatment models are Polyvagal informed, this book provides an accessible way for clinicians to embrace this groundbreaking theory in their own work.

This fourth edition provides the most comprehensive guide to the field of counselling psychology, exploring a range of theories and philosophical underpinnings, practice approaches and contexts, and professional issues. It has been updated to reflect current issues and debates and to map onto the training standards, and offers the ultimate companion for your journey through counselling psychology training and into the workplace. New to the fourth edition: Chapters on: Person-Centred Therapy; Mindfulness; Neuroscience; Engaging with and Carrying out Research; Reflective Practice; International Dimensions; and Ecopsychology A companion website offering hours of video and audio, including conversations with counselling psychology practitioners and trainees, and articles, exercises and case studies Other new features include: Further Reading, ‘Day in the Life of’ dialogues with practitioners; Reflective Exercises, and Discussion Points, and new case studies. Special attention has been paid to the topic of research, both as a theme throughout the book, and through four new chapters covering the use, carry out and publication of research at different stages of training and practice. The handbook is the essential textbook for students and practitioners in the field of counselling psychology and allied health professions, at all stages of their career and across a range of settings, both in the UK and internationally.

Short-term dynamic interpersonal psychotherapy is an integrated, trauma-informed, contemporary, dynamic way of working with a range of mental health difficulties. Flexible though structured, phase-oriented, focused and time-limited, it is informed by the Conversational Model, Attachment and Interpersonal Theories and Brief Psychodynamic Psychotherapies, which are briefly described. It provides clinicians with a way of working with patients whose difficulties do not warrant long term therapy, who prefer a talking therapy or who have failed cognitive/behaviour therapies. With the help of examples, it guides the process of assessment and therapy with trauma in mind: using Conversational Model techniques where empathy replaces confrontation; resistance is seen as a fear of re-traumatization; defence mechanisms are regarded as adaptive coping mechanisms which later become maladaptive; transference interventions replace interpretations, and self-reflective capacity is encouraged rather than just insight. Separation anxiety is addressed and anxiety-provoking techniques are avoided, given that anxiety is a large part of most presentations.