This two day course provides a broad overview of the types of PD presentations in therapy along with current “best practice” approaches to working the such clients.
This course operates as both a “stand alone” training as well as one of the Modules in Master Practitioner Diploma in CBT.
Personality Disorders(PD) are increasingly common presentations in therapy even when PD isn’t the presenting problem. Traditional therapeutic approaches and principles are often ineffective and the emotional effect of such work on practitioners is frequently adverse. This course is designed in order to help practitioners to recognise various types of PD and to find the most effective ways of working with such clients.
The course will address a number of issues:
- The concept of PD itself along with the different diagnostic types and their presentation in therapy. The following will be outlined:
- Borderline PD,
- Antisocial PD,
- Paranoid PD,
- Narcissistic PD,
- Histrionic PD
- The general implications of the therapeutic approach that is required by the practitioner and how this sits with organisational demands and the values of much traditional psychotherapy inc. CBT (see note 1), Person Centred Therapy (see note 2) and even DBT (see note 3) training
- Specific treatment strategies and techniques for different types of PD including how to address motivational issues with PD clients
- Therapist self-care in working with PD clients. One of the great lessons of DBT has been the importance of team responses to PD, in large specifically because of the psychological price that individual practitioners face. However, if you are a sole therapist, you don’t always easily have access to team support. The course will outline the key self-care priorities and protection strategies in both contexts.
Note 1: This training is important for those completing the BPS Approved Master Practitioner Diploma in CBT who wish to gain appropriate background knowledge on PD before using CBT with this client group. Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders, Aaron T. Beck et al 2nd Edition (2006)
Note 2: This training is important for those considering using a Person Centred Therapy approach to PD. A. Quinn (2011) A Person-Centered Approach to the Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder J. of Humanistic Psychology
Note 3: This training is important for those considering using a Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) approach to PD including completion of the BPS Approved Certificate in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy DBT Skills Training Manual, Marsha M. Linehan 2nd Edition (2014)
Course tutor
Prof Paul Grantham
Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Professor of Clinical Psychology at PSMedUniv, Director of SDS Seminars
Paul Grantham is a clinical psychologist with vast clinical and training experience.
With degrees from Oxford University and the University of Sussex, Paul trained as a Clinical Psychologist at Liverpool University. He has worked extensively within the NHS for many years as a clinical psychologist within a wide variety of services and headed one of the first UK research projects designed to help clients withdraw from benzodiapine addiction.
He has subsequently worked in primary care, mental health, forensic, substance misuse and physical health as both a clinician and manager. He has trained staff in health care, social services, local government and education around the UK and abroad. Over 90,000 professionals have worked directly with him. Paul has also designed and facilitated clinical supervision systems across a number of UK services.
He has a wide range of current interests including: client resistance, resource based therapies and personality disorders. He has also presented and written on a range of psychological issues – from psychological interventions post-stroke to the application of solution focused work with complex clients.
Paul is the founder and Director of SDS Ltd and one of the most popular and inspirational tutors in the field of psychological skills training. Paul is the author or editor of over 34 training films within the psychotherapy training field over the last decade and both commissions and provides training in a range of contemporary psychotherapy fields. Paul commissioned SDS Seminars’ BPS Approved Introduction to CBT – a course which has recently (June 2015) seen its 1000th student successfully complete. The BPS Approved Essential Clinical Supervision Skills devised and delivered by Paul is one of the very few non-university based Supervision courses which confers eligibility to the BPS’ Register of Applied Psychology Practice Supervisors.
Paul is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist, a Senior Associate of The Royal Society of Medicine and is an Accredited CBT Therapist.
An extremely informed, clinically experienced and humorous speaker he is known for his emphasis on the practicalities rather than just the theory of client-based work.
December 2019 issue of The British Psychological Society Magazine, The Psychologist, features a long interview with Paul Grantham. Read it here.
Course structure
- Video
- Online Test
- Personalised Certificate for 14 CPD Hours
