Transference Focused Therapy (TFP) is one of the therapies that over time has been strengthened with scientific evidence and enriched with the findings of its learning process. Just as supervision in many therapeutic currents is necessary to help with the application with the theoretical and practical elements necessary to address our patients’ needs, in the case of TFP, supervision is an essential element throughout the therapist’s life. Why is that? Supervision, which means “looking from above”, allows the therapist to see aspects of his or her experience in the session and application of technique that are not clear during the therapy itself. Simply put, too much is being experienced in the therapy session for the therapist to be aware of it all. Supervision combines attention to structure and boundary setting (the macro level, as Luis Valenciano describes it) with a careful attention to the unconscious processes that unfold in the session and how the therapist explores them with the patient in relation to the activated object relations (the micro level). All this is in the service of maximizing the mechanism: enhancing understanding of the transference and the ability to reflect of it and on the deep conflicts that become clear in reflecting on shifting transferences.
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Glauco Valdivieso
Glauco Valdivieso is a Peruvian psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and researcher based in Lima, Peru. He completed his medical degree at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and specialized in psychiatry at the Hospital Nacional Víctor Larco Herrera, becoming a board-certified psychiatrist in 2018.
He is a certified psychotherapist in Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP), trained by the International Society of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (ISTFP). In addition, he has completed formal training in Cognitive Psychotherapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT).
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Dr. Valdivieso is the co-founder and medical director of the Instituto Peruano para el Estudio y Abordaje Integral de la Personalidad (IPEP), where he also coordinates the TFP Peru division. He founded and currently leads the Chapter on Personality Disorders within the Peruvian Psychiatric Association (APP), and works at the Mental Health Unit of Hospital de Villa El Salvador in Lima.
He is also a co-founder and editorial board member of the Latin American Journal of Personality, a collaborative initiative with the Instituto Argentino para el Estudio de la Personalidad y sus Trastornos (IAEPD). Additionally, he serves on the editorial board of the Peruvian Journal of Psychiatry. Internationally, he is a Board Member of the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders (ISSPD), where he chairs the Communications Committee and leads the Latin American Regional Group.
His main clinical and research interests include the treatment of personality and mood disorders, with a particular focus on advancing research in Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP).
Silvia Bernardi
Silvia Bernardi, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University. After graduating from medical school in Florence Italy in 2006, Silvia emigrated to the USA to work intensively in neuroscience research, studying the bases of the interaction between emotions and cognition. Silvia completed her residency in Psychiatry at Columbia and has since practiced privately in New York. She trained in Transference Focused Psychotherapy and continues to see patients for medication management and psychotherapy while conducting her research to unlock further knowledge to support the biological underpinnings of TFP and borderline personality disorder.
