Transference-Focused Psychotherapy for Borderline, Narcissistic, and Other Severe Personality Disorders

About course

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Certification course

participate

teacher

date

time

format & language

MD, PhD,
President of ISTFP

London Time

2024

Simultaneous translation into Ukrainian in another audio channel

Frank Yeomans

26, 27, 28 April 2024

11:45-18:30 daily

Online education in English

Total of 4 modules

If you missed a module, you have the option of buying a video recording of it.

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ІV

September 15-17, 2023

December 1-3, 2023

February 9-11, 2024

April 26-28, 2024

buy video recording

open access

This Didactic Training covers the Basic and Advanced levels

Stated differently, it covers everything you need for deep and effective treatment of any complex cases, including patients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder, as well as for work with adolescents and the treatment of trauma and dissociation.

2023-2024 academic year

Including

Training: every day 11:30–18:30 London time zone

Lectures
Discussions of lectures
Watching pieces of videos of sessions with patients and clinical discussions thereof
Clinical supervision
Clinical supervision reviews
Q&A sessions

A total of 66 hours of didactic training

Information about our course on the official ISTFP website

The main topics of the fourth module

26-28 April 2024

TFP for Adolescents (TFP-A)

Applied TFP

The Supervision Process

Psychological Identity and Social Identity

Transference is a universal phenomenon... and it’s better to be aware of it in any treatment setting

Why and how to apply TFP principles and techniques in processes and contexts other than psychotherapy

This block will be especially useful for doctors, social workers, and professionals in all other fields where we deal with another person, particularly in the contexts of crisis management, family involvement, inpatient psychiatry, medical settings, pharmacotherapy, psychiatry residency training.

A Watchful Stance
The 3 Channels of Communication… and External Reality
Things to keep in mind (to the supervisor)
Goals of supervision
Common errors
Countertransference and dissociation
Recommendations for Supervision

The Essence of TFP

Cognitive Changes in Adolescence
Implications of these Changes
Conceptualization of the Etiology of Borderline Pathology in Adolescence
Overall Aim of the Treatment
SPECIFICITY of TFP-A
Promoting the Developmental Phase
Phases for TFP-A
Assessment
Structural Features of the Diagnostic System
The Personality Assessment Interview
Attachment Interview
Particularities of the Beginning Phase
Neutrality - Confidentiality
Mentalization Capacities
Developmental Crisis vs. Development Endangerment
STIPO for TFP-A
Working with Parents
Parental Attitudes
Shared understanding (parent and adolescent) of the problem and clinical judgment about the development endangerment
Sharing Therapist Understanding of the Problem with Adolescent
Sharing Therapist Understanding of the Problem with Parents
Decision about Treatment
Contract setting
The Inevitable Presence of the Parents
Parental Responsibilities and Authority
Parental Threats to the Treatment
Parental Investment in the Treatment (Collobaration)
The Contract with Parent(s)
Optimal characteristics of parents with adolescents who would benefit from TFP-A
The Contract with the Adolescent
Contract – Therapist Responsibilities
Threats and Challenges to the Treatment
Building a “Therapeutic Alliance” with the Adolescent / Establishing Personal Goals
SPECIFIC TECHNIQUES of TFP-A
Markers of Change and Transition

The main topics of the Third Module

February 9-11, 2024

Pathological narcissism

Treatment of pathological narcissism

Malignant narcissism syndrome

Antisocial personality

Clinical work with NPD: accurate diagnosis, examination for comorbidities
The main difficulties for therapists
Transfer and countertransfer processes. Study of the interaction between the therapist and the patient, the specifics of transference and countertransference in the context of NPD. Specific transfers and countertransfers in narcissism
Difficulties in the therapy of NPD, expectations of special attitude, resentment of reality, exploitative position, exclusion, "lack of relationships in therapy", a long stage of dominance of the pathological grandiose "Ego". Adaptation of the contract for NPD.
Techniques for treatment of narcissistic patients
Working with the pathological grandiose "Ego"

Definition
Etiology
Diagnosis
Prognostic factors

Differential diagnosis and impact on prognosis
Psychodynamics of antisocial personality disorder
Levels of transfer
...Therapy?

Young Adults Who “Fail to Launch”

Trauma and dissociation

Borderline personality organization as a basis for narcissistic pathology. Protection against identity diffusion and other unacceptable aspects of one's own personality.
Specific aspects of the internal constellation of object relations. Normal and pathological narcissism. Self-esteem. Ego-ideal. Aggression. Envy.
Aggression. Studying the role of aggression in the formation of narcissistic traits and the Super-Ego. Deficits in the value system
Pathological narcissism: structural features, psychodynamic features, clinical syndromes

Definition of the syndrome
Factors underlying the syndrome
Depth psychodynamics
Failure to launch syndrome as a manifestation of narcissistic disorder
Psychological challenges and conflicts
Conclusions for psychodynamic psychotherapy
Features of the beginning of therapy and elements of the contract
Psychotherapy: technique
The middle stage
Late phase

special topic

The main topics of the Second Module

December, 1-3, 2023

A brief summary of the main points from the first module

The Treatment Contract for Specific Conditions

The Treatment Techniques

The middle phase of treatment

Additional treatment tactics
Selecting the Focus of Attention and Intervention

Therapeutic Neutrality
Countertransference
Interpretation
Transference Analysis

A review of the treatment model – summary of mechanisms of action
Evolution of Treatment and of Transferences
Termination
Complications of Treatment

Termination

TFP Adherence Scale

The main topics of the First Module

September 15-17, 2023

Personality

A Model of Psychological Structure: Object Relations Theory.

What is Transference?

Diagnostics

How do we view a Personality?
The structure of personality, personality traits
How individuals “process” the reality: how they experience themselves in the world.
Diagnostic System for personality disorders based on the psychological structure
Similarities and differences to DSM5

The “paranoid-schizoid” split organization and the “depressive” integrated organization – ways of dealing with libido and aggression

Why this model of personality calls for working with the transference.
Alternate models of treatment for borderline personality disorders

The Structural Interview

Overview of TFP

Strategies
Treatment Tactics
The beginning of therapy: Discussion of the diagnosis; The treatment contract: an understanding of the method of treatment, the goals, and the conditions of treatment

You may complete one Module, or you may complete all four

It may be that it is the topics of one Module that you need and which will help you advance significantly. We do not, in any way, insist that you complete the entire Program. We are aware that consideration of even several topics of the TFP model would help to advance significantly. Participants who complete all 4 Modules of the Program will be provided with an additional General Certificate which is mandatory for further certification.

participate

Frank Yeomans

teacher

www.frankyeomans.com

Dr. Yeomans made a short film for you

President of ISTFP
Director of TFP New York Group
Head of the team of TFP therapists in a randomized controlled trial comparing the effectiveness of three treatments: dialectical behavioral therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and transference-focused psychotherapy.
Co-author of almost all guides for the use of TFP
Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Director of Training at the Personality Disorders Institute
Lecturer in Psychiatry at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research
Author and co-author of more than 95 books and articles on psychotherapy and psychiatry

Brilliant professor and renowned psychotherapist

WATCH THE MOVIE

Frank Yeomans

Brilliant professor and renowned psychotherapist

President of ISTFP
Director of TFP New York Group
Head of the team of TFP therapists in a randomized controlled trial comparing the effectiveness of three treatments: dialectical behavioral therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and transference-focused psychotherapy.
Co-author of almost all guides for the use of TFP
Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Director of Training at the Personality Disorders Institute
Lecturer in Psychiatry at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research
Author and co-author of more than 95 books and articles on psychotherapy and psychiatry

teacher

www.frankyeomans.com

Dr. Yeomans made a short film for you

WATCH THE MOVIE

Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) is an empirically supported and evidence-based treatment for personality disorders that has proven its efficacy in numerous studies (2001, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2015, and others).

What is the value of TFP?

www.istfp.org

ENG

More information about the research at TFP:

The treatment scheme that follows from it and has well-established (manualized) techniques, tactics, and strategies.

Transference-Focused Psychotherapy is a structural psychotherapy based on:

A well-established and thoroughly elaborated clinical and theoretical model of the psyche

The TFP has treatment phases: opening, middle, termination. Its fundamental objective is the change in the personality structures: from the borderline splitting to the integration of the split-off representations and the creation of an integrated sense of the patient’s identity and experience of others.

First empirical outcome research

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs)

The following RCT

The first three uncontrolled ones (Clarkin et al. 2001, Cuevas et al. 2000, Lopez et al. 2004) demonstrated significant improvements in psychopathology, self-mutilizing behavior, and psychiatric hospitalizations after one year of TFP.

A study published in 2007 compared transfer-focused psychotherapy (TFP), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), and psychodynamic supportive therapy (PST) among 90 patients with borderline disorder over a year. All three methods improved overall functioning and social adaptation, and reduced depression and anxiety. TFP and DBT reduced suicidality, TFP and PST improved aspects of impulsivity, while only TFP reduced anger, irritability and aggression, significantly improved reflective function, and (!) changed the attachment style, 28.6% of patients moved from an insecure attachment style to a secure one in one year, which was not achieved by patients in DBT and PST.

Publication in 2010. In the treatment of patients with borderline personality disorder, TFP was compared to therapy with experienced community psychotherapists. The study was conducted for one year in Munich and Vienna on 104 patients. The results demonstrate a significant advantage of TFP with regard to the primary outcome criteria - the rate of early interruption of therapy and suicide attempts. The same was true for the secondary outcome measures, i.e., reductions in DSM-IV borderline disorder diagnostic criteria, psychosocial functioning, level of personality organization, and psychiatric hospitalizations.

READ IT

The subsequent RCTs for empirical outcome research were in 2015 and 2022. Some research is in progress.

A randomized controlled trial (RCT) is a type of medical study in which participants are randomly divided into groups, one of which receives the study treatment and the other (control) uses standard methods or a placebo. The scientific validity of the findings is determined using statistical methods. RCTs are the basis of evidence-based medicine.

This is your chance to learn the essence of psychoanalysis

Take part

You too can learn to work like this: efficiently, with a full understanding of what is happening to the patient and what to do about it

Our Complete Didactic Training covers the Basic and Advanced levels

Our Didactic Certification Training consists of 4 Modules and covers the Basic and Advanced levels, namely:

Please note that you may register for a single module or the entire training program.

Start with the basics

Basic level

Advanced level

heading for a high level

Personality and Identity

Diagnostic System

A Model of Psychological Structure: Object Relations Theory

What is Transference?

The Structural Interview

Overview of TFP: Strategies, Treatment Tactics

The Beginning of Therapy: Discussion of the Diagnosis, the Treatment Contract

The Treatment Contract

Additional Treatment Tactics

Evolution of Treatment and of Transferences

Treatment Techniques Therapeutic Neutrality, Countertransference, Interpretation, Transference Analysis

Termination

Complications of Treatment

TFP Adherence Scale

Pathological Narcissism

TFP for Pathological Narcissism

Malignant Narcissism and Anti-Social Personality

The “Failure to Launch” Syndrome

Trauma and Dissociation

TFP for Adolescents

Applied TFP*

The Supervision Process for the Supervisor’s Perspective

Psychological Identity and Social Identity

The Essence of TFP

Applied TFP: the use of TFP principles not only in psychotherapy, but also in any other situations where there are professional relationships with difficult clients - clinic, helpline, volunteering, etc. - in order to gain an understanding of what is happening, formulate interventions that are appropriate for the purpose, and prevent burnout.

Who will benefit from this material?

The TFP integrates the clinical concepts of Freud’s theory, British object relations theory, ego psychology, the Kleinian approach, and modernizes these in line with modern neuroscience discoveries.

This TFP course creates a solid foundation for virtuoso and advanced work with our patients. For such work, which will protect you from burnout

Psychoanalytic Therapists

Other-modality psychotherapists

Psychiatrists

A preliminary study of psychoanalysis would be of help when mastering TFP. This would collect all your prior Psychoanalysis knowledge into a single system. It would be immediately evident to Psychoanalytic Therapists what kind of internal issues the patient has and how to work with them so that this does not lead to a drop-out or to the transformation of therapy into a perpetual process but leads to the achievement of therapy goals via the shortest routes.

Practitioners in various forms of psychotherapy, as well as those trained in integrative methods, may learn TFP and use it effectively. In this situation, a bit more work might be necessary, but the outcome is worthwhile.

The TFP model can also be applied in psychiatry, both inpatient and outpatient, in the doctor-patient relationship to increase adherence (one unit will be devoted to this in the last Module of our Training).

What do students say about us?

I also thank Oleksiy very much for the opportunity to learn from such an incredible specialist! I am in awe of the way Dr. Yeomans works with clients, his acceptance of clients and the way he is able to articulate complex things gently. Incredible organization, great translators! I'll back you up for the next module!

Organizers can be narcissistically admired. Everything is perfect. Many thanks! I look forward to the next seminars. Everything is very collegial, accessible, clinically useful

Thank you for the seminar and especially for such an interesting analysis of supervisions already on the 1st module. This clearly shows the method. And I`m ready to go to the next module!

I join my colleagues - a great organization, thank you, Oleksiy! And an excellent translation. Great gratitude to Dr. Yeomans for sharing his knowledge and experience. Worth it!

Thanks to Frank Yeomans for valuable communication, desire to provide knowledge, sincerity and correctness in communication

I also want to thank you for the excellently organized, very useful and informative training, professional work of the translators. I look forward to further actions

Great organization and the seminar itself! I look forward to the next event ❤️ Many thanks to Oleksiy and Dr. Yeomans, and everyone involved!

Thank you very much, highly topical program, very interesting and saturated materials. There is something to think about. and special thanks for the articles!

Thank you very much, Oleksiy, for this opportunity, and special thanks for the organization!

Cool organization, translators and special satisfaction from a clear setting

Discover new growth opportunities for yourself

The understanding of the psyche based on Otto Kernberg's object relations model, as well as Transference-Focused Psychotherapy, developed specifically for the treatment of severe personality disorders, opens up new horizons - what previously seemed untreatable becomes a normal level of your professionalism.

To obtain a general certificate which is mandatory for further certification in the TFP model, you need to be present online at each Module.