Books for Therapists on Personality Disorders
Personality disorders are frequently very hard to deal with, both to the person affected and to those around him or her. With that in mind, the mental health practitioner plays a crucial role in the autonomy and adaptation of the patient into every sector of life, such as professional and personal. The books below provide helpful information and powerful strategies to the therapist that works with these people, allowing for the professional to grasp the full extent of a person’s disorder.
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“Psychotherapy for Borderline Personality” by Clarkin
This book offers a complete and concise description pf psychodynamic therapy for patients with borderline personality, discussing essential topics to the success of the treatment, such as transference and object relations theory. Guiding practitioners that work with this kind of disorder, the book delivers innovative intervention techniques in a clear and sophisticated approach.
“Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for Personality Disorders: A Clinical Handbook” by Clarking and Fonagy
Recommended for seasoned and inexperienced therapists alike, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for Personality Disorders focuses on the description, assessment and treatment of personality disorders according to psychodynamic theories, drawing from ample research and clinical cases to achieve the best results from the intervention.
“A Primer of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for the Borderline Patient” by Kernberg, Yeomans and Clarkin
This book sheds light on a recent and effective psychodynamic treatment for borderline patients named Transference-Focused Therapy, which aims to help the practitioner in the very hard task of treating borderline disorder. This new treatment is based on the object relations theory, and its main focus is the transference and countertransference present in the psychotherapy process.
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“Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders” by Beck
This extremely acclaimed book by renowned psychologist Aaron Beck is crucial to understanding personality disorders from a cognitive-behavioral therapy point of view. The book discusses the definition and identification of each personality disorder and reflects on why they’re so hard to treat. Also, Beck shares detailed clinical cases that go together with descriptions of individualized DBT interventions for different personality disorders.
“Disorders of Personality” by Millon
Reading the new DSM-5, it may be confusing and frustrating to encounter so many different classifications and descriptions. Analyzing this problem, Theodore Millon provides us with a book that has the main objective of leading clinicians to a more clear understanding of personality disorders, making comprehensible divisions between them and exemplifying it all with complete case studies.
“Borderline-Persönlichkeitsstörung: Das Kurzlehrbuch” von Heedt
This book offers a basic knowledge: for prospective specialists and psychologists in training and for everyone who works with borderline patients. It describes the 4 most important therapies of BPD. It also reflects on what the future of borderline therapy should look like: integratively taking up the successful principles of the most important borderline therapy methods and connecting them to something new.
“Schematherapie bei Borderline-Persönlichkeitsstörung” von Arntz und van Genderen
The schema therapy developed by Jeffrey Young is an integrative psychotherapy approach that is based on cognitive models and is particularly effective in the treatment of borderline disorder. This manual offers both the basics of schema therapy as well as methods and techniques for specific application (therapy dialogues). Including therapy materials: worksheets and information sheets for patients and therapists.
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