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3 Approaches to Personality Disorders: 3-Video Series
Prepare to be enlightened by this riveting series featuring three very different yet fascinating approaches to personality disorders. Watch DBT pioneer Marsha Linehan, CBT expert Art Freeman, and psychoanalytic legend Otto Kernberg work with Alfred, a challenging client struggling with severe Axis II issues and deep ambivalence about being in therapy.
One challenging client, three compelling approaches: we’re proud to present the complete Three Approaches to Personality Disorders series, a modern take on the classic “Gloria” tapes (featuring Rogers, Perls, and Ellis meeting with the same client) that will leave you equally thrilled. Here, DBT originator Marsha Linehan, CBT expert Art Freeman, and psychoanalytic luminary Otto Kernberg showcase the essentials of their respective orientations through intensive initial sessions with Alfred, a difficult client struggling with a personality disorder as well as feelings of suicidality after being left by his girlfriend.

Each clinician brings a unique style and orientation to their sessions, yet all work masterfully with this client, distressed after the latest in a string of unexpected relationship breakups and struggling with violent inclinations and feelings of anger and blame. While Alfred works to keep his worst behaviors hidden from Linehan and is reluctant to commit to any treatment, Linehan carefully, cleverly, and matter-of-factly garners necessary information about him, assesses his suicidality and history of domestic violence, helps him define and commit to his goals, and builds an appropriate initial alliance. Kernberg skillfully uncovers the details of Alfred’s story, including his heavy drinking and violent behavior, and presents interpretations that give him a clearer picture of his predicament. Honing in on Alfred’s maladaptive schemas—or core beliefs regarding relationships—Freeman asks direct questions that begin to challenge his client’s perceptions while also managing to be attuned and nonjudgmental.

Sessions are punctuated with commentary throughout, and in-depth interviews reveal more about each therapist’s approach and process. Hard-to-treat issues are addressed such as domestic violence, suicidal and homicidal ideation, and substance abuse, along with a broader clinical consideration of personality disorders and the therapeutic alliance, from three vastly different perspectives.

You’ll be delighted with the results of each video, and you’ll find a trove of insightful nuggets to enhance your own clinical work. This rich series is not to be missed!

To order an individual title in this series separately, click on the title of your choice in the list below.

In this Series…

What therapists are saying…

"The Series 3 Approaches to Personality Disorders  series contains compelling, instructive demonstrations of these modalities. Presenting theory to graduate students is important, but viewing experts in action is invaluable to emerging therapists who are always highly engaged and inspired by the content of this series."

 --Susan Dowd Stone, LCSW, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Silver School of Social Work, New York University
“Marsha Linehan’s work is searing. It leaves an indelible mark on your view of effective psychotherapy. Her irreverence wakes you up and her compassion is abundant. Keeping things rational, direct and practical is at the core of Marsha’s wisdom. This DBT training video is extraordinary."

  --Shelley McMain, PhD, Head, Borderline Personality Disorder Clinic, University of Toronto
"This video presents a diagnostic interview and therapeutic intervention by one of the most influential contributors to our contemporary understanding of the assessment and treatment of severe personality disorders. In three sequential interviews captured on video, Dr. Kernberg illustrates his ability to empathize with his challenging patient while at the same time deepening the patient's level of self-understanding. Pre- and post-session discussions and voice over commentaries illuminate the thoughtfulness behind Kernberg's interventions. This video provides a rare and invaluable learning opportunity, and will be cherished by experienced clinicians as well as students new to the field for years to come."

 --Eve Caligor MD, Director, Psychotherapy Division, Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Researc
"A masterful example of skilled work with an extremely difficult patient. Dr. Freeman provides wonderful examples of accurate empathy and engagement and the artful use of metaphor to help facilitate reflection. Additionally, attention to the therapeutic alliance and repair and countertransference are realistically depicted, including remaining calm in a crisis and deploying tools to facilitate a decrease in suicidal thinking and instilling hope. This is a must-see for anyone who deals with patients who have personality issues and behavioral dyscontrol."

 -- Donna Sudak, MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Psychotherapy Training, College of Medicine, Drexel University
"One of the differences between watching these DVDs and reading a book by any of the clinicians featured, is that you get to see them actually working and rapidly gain a real flavour of what their models of psychotherapy are like.... I would recommend them to anyone interested in CPD [Continuing Professional Development] training or learning more about these therapeutic styles."

--Anthony Prendergast MSc, Reviewed in BACP Journal Private Practice.
In Depth
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Watch as three expert clinicians bring a unique approach and style to their work with Alfred, a 40-year-old man whose pain over a recent breakup reveals troubling symptoms and an underlying personality disorder. Kernberg patiently conducts an initial assessment interspersed with Transference-Focused Psychotherapy techniques, including diagnostic “structural interviewing” regarding symptoms, personality, degree of identity diffusion or integration, and reality testing. With her up-front and frank style, Linehan defines the client’s goals, makes clear to him which behaviors must change immediately, and gets him to agree to postpone suicidality in favor of further investigating her treatment. Freeman attends empathically and pragmatically to Alfred’s narcissistic need to “give 100% or nothing” in his relationships while simultaneously getting Alfred’s buy-in to explore ways of gaining more, not less, control over his anger, drinking, relationships, and emotions.

By watching this video, you will:
  • Understand how three different therapists assess for personality disorders and obtain commitment to therapy.
  • Learn how CBT, DBT, and psychoanalysis deal with clinical issues such as countertransference and the therapeutic alliance.
  • Identify elements from three approaches to use with your own clients.

Length of Series: 8:49:14

English subtitles available

Arthur (Art) Freeman, EdD is Clinical Professor of Psychology at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. He is a past president of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy and of the International Association for Cognitive Psychotherapy. He has published 63 professional books including Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders, Clinical Applications of Cognitive Therapy, and The Comprehensive Casebook of Cognitive Therapy. He has also published two popular books, including Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda: Overcoming Mistakes and Missed Opportunities, and The Ten Dumbest Mistakes Smart People Make, and How to Overcome Them.

See all Arthur Freeman videos. Otto Kernberg, MD is the Director of the Personality Disorder Institute at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, Westchester Division, and Professor of Psychiatry at the Joan and Sandford I. Weill Medical College and Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University. He is also Training and Supervising Analyst of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and is the Past-President of the International Psychoanalytic Association. He has received numerous awards for his excellence in Psychiatry and has authored or coauthored over twenty books.

See all Otto Kernberg videos. Marsha Linehan, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology and adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington and is Director of the Behavioral Research and Therapy Clinics, a consortium of research projects developing new treatments and evaluating their efficacy for severely disordered and multi-diagnostic and suicidal populations. Her primary research is in the application of behavioral models to suicidal behaviors, drug abuse, and borderline personality disorder. She is also working to develop effective models for transferring science-based treatments to the clinical community.  

She is the developer of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), a treatment originally developed for the treatment of suicidal behaviors and since expanded to treatment of borderline personality disorder and other severe and complex mental disorders, particularly those that involve serious emotion dysregulation. 

See all Marsha Linehan videos.
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