Borderline Personality Disorder Powerful & Effective Strategies to Calm the Chaos

CPD

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Speaker

Gregory Lester, PhD Related seminars and products

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Gregory W. Lester, Ph.D., is a clinical, consulting, and research psychologist with practices in Colorado and Texas. Dr. Lester has presented over 2,000 personality disorders trainings to over 200,000 professionals in every major city in the United States, Canada, and Australia. In his nearly 40 years of clinical practice, Dr. Lester has treated over 1,000 personality disorder cases and has performed psychological evaluations on over 2,500 individuals.

Dr. Lester has served on the graduate faculty of The University of St. Thomas and as a special consultant to The United States Department of Justice. Dr. Lester’s office served as one of the original research sites for the DSM-5® revision of the personality disorders section where he collaborated with Emory University, the New York State Psychiatric Group, The University of Missouri, The University of Kentucky, and the late Dr. Robert Spitzer, chairman of the DSM-3 committee.

Dr. Lester is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Texas Psychological Association, and the Colorado Psychological Association. He is the author of nine books, including Power with People, a manual of interpersonal effectiveness, Shrunken Heads, an irreverent memoir of his graduate school training, and Diagnosis, Treatment, and Management of Personality Disorders, which is the largest-selling front-line clinical manual on diagnosing, treating, and managing personality disorders.

Dr. Lester’s research and articles have appeared in publications including The Journal of the American Medical Association, The Western Journal of Medicine, The Yearbook of Family Practice, The Journal of Behavioral Therapy, The Journal of Marriage and Family Therapy, The Handbook of Depression, Transactional Analysis Journal, Living Word Magazine, The Priest Magazine, and The Houston Lawyer.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Gregory Lester maintains a private practice. He is a consultant for Improvement Research Group. He is a published author and receives royalties. Dr. Lester receives a speaking honorarium, recording royalties, and a consulting fee from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Gregory Lester is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Texas Psychological Association, and Colorado Psychological Association.

Objectives

1. Describe the evolution and cause of Borderline Personality Disorder as it relates to clinical practice.
2. Evaluate effective techniques to assess and diagnose Borderline Personality Disorder to improve treatment outcomes.
3. Articulate when a management approach would be best to improve client behaviour and reduce Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms.
4. Assess six criteria to determine if a treatment intervention would be more effective than a management intervention for a Borderline Personality Disorder client to inform the clinician’s choice of interventions.
5. Discover interventions to diminish self-harm and suicidal behaviours to improve client level of functioning.
6. Summarize techniques to assist the clinician in managing countertransference in session.

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 behaviours 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 behaviour
  • Chronic suicidality
  • Acute suicidality
• Strategies to manage non-lethal suicidal behaviour
• 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

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Therapists
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Addiction Counselors
• Case Managers
• Psychiatrists
• Nurse Practitioners
• Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals

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