Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) Informed Psychoeducation

Transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) emphasizes the need to inform patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) about the nature and course of their personality pathology, as well as about available treatment options. As the scope of TFP has been extended to a broader group of patients with borderline personality organization (BPO), the same goal for pertinent instruction has been maintained. While the need for psychoeducation (PE) has been stressed in various TFP manuals, clinicians may benefit from a more detailed exploration of this process. This chapter outlines a proposed structured group PE program for patients with personality disorder diagnoses. Using straightforward language, the program adopts an informal and collaborative stance to educate patients diagnosed with BPD, among other comparable personality disorder presentations, about the symptoms, etiology and course of their conditions, reviewing existing treatment options, and illustrating how TFP might help them to overcome their difficulties. Therefore, this PE program can be integrated into the pre-treatment phase of both a standard individual TFP treatment and of TFP-informed treatment programs in those settings where they are available, as those described in the following chapters of this volume. In perspective, this program could also be implemented as part of a process for treatment selection for the patient considering among multiple possible intervention and as a stand-alone PE intervention that can be scaled to meet the needs of those systems tasked with educating clinicians and patients about personality disorder pathology.