Understanding the Therapeutic Relationship ‐ Women Diagnosed as Borderline Personality Disordered

Abstract

It has been suggested that children's repeated traumatisation, such as repeated exposure to physical or sexual abuse, evokes defensive operations and experiential distortions that lead to personality disorder. This understanding has major implications with regard to how staff understand their patients, their role within the relationship and the therapy approach they take. Analysis of staff's understandings regarding influences upon the therapeutic relationship with women diagnosed as borderline personality disorder, acknowledges the centrality of trauma/attachment difficulties; however, this continues to perceive relationships as internalised difficulties within the women. This research explores the negative compounding factors that result in re‐enactments of early attachments and the need for shared responsibility for producing such relationships, in order to develop a more therapeutic, supporting and validating experience for both patients and staff.