Skills for Working with Borderline Personality Disorder

This one-day training will examine and address, the following questions regarding Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD):
- What is personality?
- How does personality become disordered?
- What is Borderline Personality Disorder?
- Why does BPD have such an impact on staff?
- How is BPD most effectively managed and treated?
- What does STEPPS offer that makes it easier to learn than methods like Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)?

Diane Clare will provide attendees with practical skills for working with those with emotional intensity difficulties.

The workshop will also provide an introduction to the STEPPS (Systems Training in Emotional Predictability & Problem Solving) programme, explain why this approach is so helpful in responding to clients with consistency, and why it lends itself well to a cultural approach with Maori and Pacific cultures due to working with the client’s support system.

STEPPS is a skills-based approach using CBT principles for those working with Borderline Personality Disorder clients – youth and adults alike, in groups or as individuals, which can be applied to a range of clients with emotional regulation difficulties (e.g. anger management, anxiety management), and not just for BPD. Originally developed at the University of Iowa, the STEPPS approach has been rolled out internationally with resounding successes.

Learning Outcomes:
Through gaining a fuller understanding of BPD, participants will gain a new set of resources and related skills that can be applied to their practice, and the training will provide increased confidence when working with these clients who can be challenging for services. Staff’s assessment and conceptualisation skills regarding borderline personality disorder will be enhanced.

It will provide specific guidance for all mental health professionals in evidence-based psychological treatment for personality disorders, and complex trauma, and will dispel the common myths about Borderline Personality Disorder – what it is, and what it is not.

Past attendees whose clients have been guided through the STEPPS programme have repeatedly reported that their clients have found greater hope for the future, and their risky behaviour decreased. In addition, staff that supported them have been encouraged by the simplicity of the strategies as well as their efficacy.

This workshop provides a brief introduction to STEPPS, but if you wish to learn how to deliver the 20-week STEPPS programme, a further 2-day workshop is also available.

Who Should Attend:
In addition to therapists and MH professionals in both primary and secondary level care, this workshop is also for front-line staff with no, or little psychological training, who may be struggling with how to work with these clients.

It is suitable for those working in social services, health and law enforcement, including:
- Emergency Room staff, Crisis Telephone Helpline staff
- School counsellors and teaching staff
- Community mental health staff
- Police and Probation Officers
- Youth justice counsellors
- Key Workers, Unit Managers, Mental Health Nurses, Social Workers
- General Practitioners
- Psychologists & Psychiatrists RTLB, Therapists, and Licensed Practising Counsellors

It will particularly suit those in NFP’s, community-based outreach services, community organisations, and those working with specific groups including young people or people with comorbid substance use.

Presenter
Diane Clare is a registered clinical psychologist who trained at the University of Canterbury. Diane has worked in mental health and counselling services since 1981, first as a grief counsellor then as a psychotherapist, before becoming registered as a psychologist in 1993.

She has worked in leadership and Director level roles across a range of services in both NZ and the UK including primary care, adult mental health, forensic, intellectual disability and tertiary student services.