Borderline Personality Disorder: Struggling, Understanding, Succeeding

"Everyone expects me to have goals for the future. I'm just struggling to survive each day." - Client with BPD

Such is the struggle of persons with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) who are plagued by chronic urges to harm themselves, overwhelming emotions, impulsivity, and problematic relationships. For these individuals every day, and sometimes, every moment, can be a struggle to get through. The tasks of daily life which most people seem to handle with minimal discomfort, leave the Borderline client feeling confused, overwhelmed, and inadequate. Further, chronic urges to mutilate or kill themselves place them at high risk of hospitalization or even death.

Borderline Personality Disorder: Struggling, Understanding, Succeeding is an easy to understand must read for clinicians of all backgrounds. The title not only describes the process of recovering, but also the process care providers must go through to live with and treat BPD. The struggling client with BPD must learn to understand her behavior in order to change it. Likewise, the struggling clinician must learn to understand the Borderline client before they will be able to provide successful interventions.

Struggling, Understanding, Succeeding describes the struggles facing clients with Borderline Personality Disorder as well as the professionals and loved ones caring for them. Dr. Warner argues that by understanding these individual’s behaviors and changing our negative ways of thinking about them, we can become more satisfied and successful in our work. In down to earth language with practical examples, this book provides an overview of the current knowledge base regarding Borderline Personality Disorder and an introduction to the concepts of Dialectic Behavioral Therapy. Concrete strategies are described for assessing and intervening with clients who self injure along with a list of "Things to Try Instead of Hurting Yourself."

If you don’t have hours to pour over research articles and textbooks, this book will summarize them for you and translate them into real world strategies.

Dr. Colleen Warner is a licensed psychologist in the state of Wisconsin and a member of the National Registry of Health Services Providers in Psychology. She holds a Bachelors of Music Education in Music Therapy from the University of Kansas and completed her Doctorate of Psychology at the Minnesota School of Professional Psychology (Argosy University).

Dr. Warner provides training nationally for PESI Healthcare on the topic of Borderline Personality Disorder. Her years of experience, passion, and empathy combined with her "down to earth" presentation style and sense of humor have been appreciated by professionals across the country. She draws on her experience as a supervisor in rural mental health clinics where her caseload often consisted of the most difficult to treat clients, including those with Borderline Personality Disorder. Dr. Warner provides supervision and consultation to other practitioners struggling with the challenges of treating Borderlines and thus, has developed an understanding of the health care provider’s frustration elicited by these difficult cases.

Currently in private practice, Dr. Warner continues to have an interest in clients with Borderline Personality Disorder and other Co-Morbid conditions. Dr. Warner also conducts training in the areas of Suicide Prevention, Crisis Management, Dealing with Difficult Patient Behavior, and Mental Health Topics for School and Medical Professionals.