Borderline Personality Disorder: A Therapist's Guide to Taking Control

BPD presents with so many clinical permutations that clinicians are often at a loss when trying to address the unique and varied needs of their clients. Neither clinician nor client is in a position to establish the control the client so desperately needs.

In Borderline Personality Disorder: A Therapist’s Guide to Taking Control, Freeman and Fusco offer the means by which clinicians can get a hold of BPD in the therapeutic situation and, most importantly, in their clients’ lives. Organized in chapters that correspond to each of the nine criteria for BPD the Therapist’s Guide is designed to aid the experienced therapist in performing the focused, structured work necessary with patients. This book lays out a constructive program for organizing effective therapy by moving through each criterion, examining it and whether it is manifested in clients’ life, and, then, providing critical, reflective, and calming strategies by which clients can begin to take control of their lives. The Therapist’s Guide provides the basic structure of the detailed therapeutic exercises that the Patient’s Guide establishes for the client’s use both in therapy and at home in between sessions.

Arthur Freeman, EdD, is chief psychologist and director of training at Sheridan Shores Care and Rehabilitation Center, Chicago. He lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Gina M. Fusco, Psy. D., is a licensed psychologist in Philadelphia. She is a System of Care Clinical Director for Alternative Behavioral Services, a comprehensive behavioral healthcare program for high-risk adolescents. She has led clinical diagnostic teams for juvenile detention centers, and has created several crisis intervention programs for psychiatric hospitals. She has authored and coauthored chapters on the treatment of crisis-prone patients, crisis intervention, and personality disorders. She lectures at The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia.