Outline

What You Need to Know that You’ve Never Heard Before

• Evolution of the disorder and why it matters
• 3 critical concepts to understand for successful treatment outcomes
• Why BPD is so often misunderstood
• Reality of psychopharmacology and its effects on BPD
• Cutting-edge data and its implications for effective interventions
• Predictors in children that indicate future BPD diagnosis

Unique Assessment and Diagnostic Considerations for BPD

• The single biggest predictor of treatment success
• Key to assessing BPD – learn the proper order for interventions to be effective
  • DSM-5® criteria, ranked by importance
  • Common features you won’t find in the DSM-5®
• 5-step process to confidently identify and diagnose BPD
• Avoid misdiagnosis with an accurate differential diagnosis assessment

A Step-by-Step Guide to Create a Treatment Plan that Works

• Determine “treatability” of a BPD client
• Treating vs. managing BPD
• Critical preparation to determine proper intervention approach
• The structure that makes all interventions effective
• Utilize maladaptive BPD behaviors as teaching mechanism

Successful Approaches to Manage Difficult Behaviors

• What is “management” and how will it help my clients?
• 6 reasons to manage rather than treat a BPD client
• When to utilize a management context
• 5 must-have management approaches
  • De-mental health-izing
  • Facilitating specificity
  • Empty context
  • SET
  • Didactic Education

Treatment Interventions to Repair the Disordered Self

• 6 criteria to determine if treatment is appropriate for your client
• Attainable treatment goals to improve client functioning
• 4 evidence-based treatment options
  • Transference-focused Psychotherapy-Object-Relations Psychotherapy
  • DBT – Behaviorist Psychotherapy
  • Schema therapy – Cognitive-Behavioral Psychotherapy
  • Mentalization-based treatment – Attachment-Based Psychotherapy

Strategies to Keep Your Clients Safe from Self-Harm and Suicidal Behaviors

• Reality of risk factors for BPD clients
• Assessment to determine which self-harm category BPD clients fall into
• Essential distinctions to know:
  • Parasuicidal behavior
  • Chronic suicidality
  • Acute suicidality
• Strategies to manage non-lethal suicidal behavior
• How to protect yourself legally if a client commits suicide

Practitioner Issues – Precautionary Techniques

• Prepare for sessions – what your internal dialogue should look like
• How to recognize and end a power struggle
• 5 subtle signs your boundaries are slipping
• How to handle common counter-transference problems
• De-escalate emotional blackmail and manage liability