Borderline Personality Disorder
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. • 6.0 C.E. Hours

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This introductory course focuses on the etiology and treatment of borderline personality disorder as one of many posttraumatic disorders. Seminar material reflects the contributions of several areas of inquiry into the disorder, particularly Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).  DBT provides a view of the contribution of childhood trauma to borderline problems that is respectful of the patient/client. From the DBT perspective, many of the more disruptive aspects of borderline functioning are best seen as faulty ways to solve affect management problems rather than expressions of motives to which pejoratives have been applied. However, the focus of the seminar is also on the importance of the flexibility of choices of interventions by therapists in approaching these problems.

TESTIMONIALS

Here are some comments about the program taken from recent course evaluations:

Presenter is exceptionally knowledgable and articulate.—MFT, June 12, 2004

Superb knowledge, expertise, and ability to express self and ideas.—Psychologist, June 12, 2004

TOPICS

•  Diagnostic Problems
•  Approaches to Etiology
•  The Role of Resilience in Borderline Processes
•  Functional Characteristics of Borderlines
•  Helpful/Unhelpful Treatment Assumptions, Agreements, and Treatment Targets

GOALS

At the conclusion of this program you should be better able to:

• Understand resilience factors that may account for differences in responses to childhood trauma.
•  Recognize differences between DSM-IV diagnostic criteria and alternative diagnostic criteria for BPD.
•  Implement helpful agreements that therapists might make with their borderline patients/clients.

SPEAKER PROFILE

A. Steven Frankel, Ph.D., J.D., ABPP is both a Psychologist (#PSY 3354) and Attorney at Law. He is a Diplomate in Clinical Psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology. He serves as an expert case reviewer for the Board of Psychology, has served as an expert for the Board of Behavioral Sciences, and is General Counsel for the California Association of Psychology Providers (CAPP). . He is a Clinical Professor of Psychology at USC, and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Golden Gate University School of Law where he teaches Mental Disorder and the Law. He has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at Loyola Law School where he taught health care law, bioethics, and the regulation of health care practice. His expertise, sense of humor, participant ratings, and ability to bring life to a potentially dry topic such as laws and ethics earned him our Instructor of the Year award in 2000.