This didactic training course comprising three, three day programmes will include a series of formal lectures and group discussions about early childhood Affect-Confusion and the Psychotherapy of Borderline Disorders. For many psychotherapists, borderline clients present a professional challenge because of their frequent relational conflicts, varying developmental levels of transference, and their polarization of emotions, such as: idealization and hate, elation and despair, anger and dependency. This course will provide diagnostic perspectives on Attachment Disruptions, an understanding of the etiology of Early Affect-Confusion and the formation of the Borderline Personality, the therapeutic use of treatment contracts, and a working knowledge of when and how to use behavioral interventions and/or supportive age regression.
Dr. Erskine will teach several methods that are effective in the psychotherapy of borderline disorders. They may include the methods of transference resolution and countertransference identification, the bifurcation of therapeutically relevant challenges, calibrating for juxtaposition reactions, responding to oscillating relational-needs, and the importance of a sustained phenomenological inquiry and affect attunement. Participants will be expected to present cases from their own clinical practices for discussion and supervision. This Advanced course will provide 30 hours of training credit towards certification as an Integrative Psychotherapist by the Commission on Standards and Certification of the International Integrative Psychotherapy Association