News

The Research and Publication Committee was established within the ISTFP to promote attention toward research relevant to the field of TFP. John Clarkin has guided the Research Committee since the foundation of the ISTFP. During the past decade, I had the opportunity to assist Dr. Clarkin in the initiatives of the Committee. In particular, we had regular open meetings of the Committee during the biennial ISTFP conferences, and the stimuli from those meetings fostered the initiatives of the Committee. In 2022 I was given the exciting opportunity to chair the Research and Publication Committee and was honored to accept this role. The first task was to establish a group of members. With the precious consultation of John Clarkin and Stephan Doering, a list of highly competent and motivated colleagues emerged:

Marko Biberdzic, Victor Blüml, Anna Buchheim, John Clarkin, Chiara De Panfilis, Rossella Di Pierro, Stephan Doering, Karin Ensink, Eric Fertuck, Andrea Fontana, Susanne Hörz-Sagstetter, Maya Krischer, Maria Jesus Rufat

I could list several qualities when thinking about these esteemed colleagues mentioned above. I want to underline how this roster of members is representative of different sites and countries, different research backgrounds, and different areas of expertise. What all these members have in common, however, is an evident enthusiasm for fostering the empirical basis of object relations and TFP.

During the first inaugural meeting at the last ISTFP conference, the Committee discussed its mission and mid- and long-term goals. We agreed that the Committee would serve as a nexus of communication among clinical researchers in the ISTFP. The initiatives and actions that we are developing aim to stimulate and assist in generating research among members of the ISTFP. Areas of research interest include:

1. Psychopathology research, primarily as related to object relations theory
2. Adolescence and developmental research
3. Research on clinical assessment, e.g., STIPO-R, IPO-A, LPOq
4. TFP process and outcome research

After the inaugural meeting, the Committee has scheduled a periodic follow-up meeting to translate the ideal mission into practical operations. In particular, we identified some initiatives as priorities for our joint work:

1. Generation of a general research plan for conducting randomized clinical trials (RCT) of TFP.
   We all know how crucial it is to continue accumulating empirical evidence on the efficacy of TFP. New RCTs are paramount to continue being on the map of Evidence-Based Treatments for personality disorders. At the same time, such research efforts are hard to implement and pursue. Thus the Research Committee is supporting sites undergoing such efforts.
2. Consultation with potential sites for the conduction of RCTs of TFP.
   Along the same line, as some RCT plans are almost ready to start, we need to prepare new sites for (near) future efforts.
3. Mapping research expertise within the ISTFP
   The ISTFP community is unique in how clinical, theoretical, and research experiences are shared among many valuable members. We will soon circulate a brief survey for those members of ISTFP who are involved in research. We aim to get a clear map of such diffused expertise to create and foster collaboration networks.
4. Reviewing empirical evidence on TFP and the object relations model of personality pathology.
   The TFP model is unique compared to other treatment models in that therapeutic techniques derive from a specific well developed clinical and theoretical model of the mind. We thus think that, besides RCTs, we can foster the empirical foundations of TFP, stimulating research in other areas. In particular, we came up with some research areas, and we are now in the process of reviewing existing contributions in the following domains:
   • Developmental research and adolescence
   • Assessment
   • Social cognitive processes and neurobiological underpinnings
   • Psychotherapy research (outcome, process, mediators/moderators)

We have set an exciting and challenging roadmap, and we look forward to conducting this journey!

 Emanuele Preti

Daniela Saralegui is a young member of the ISTFP since 2020. She is a member of Grupo TFP Chile. She is a clinical psychologist, has a master’s degree in Adolescents from the University of Valencia, and has TFP training from TFP Latin America. Upon meeting her, we discovered an inquisitive girl who was involved in various activities. She is a university professor, attends to patients, and devotes much of her time to research, particularly in the field of TFP supervision.

Her first contact with the structural approach was during her undergraduate training at the university.

I learned Otto’s theory at the university, and from the beginning, it seemed orderly and made sense to me. Although they only taught me the structural theory and nothing about TFP, I came to that a little later. Once I was out of university, I started working at a psychiatric hospital in my country. I had no approach, and I really did not know where to start; it was somewhat chaotic. I thought the appropriate thing was to be eclectic and put a little bit of everything together… so sometimes it was cognitive-behavioral, other times it was psychodynamic, and sometimes I did a third-generation therapy.

It was a mess, and what was impressive was that my supervisor at that time was not concerned, and it bothered me a bit, but not enough. The breaking point came when I had around 20 patients, and one of them was getting worse and worse, going from crisis to crisis, and no matter how much I took the case to supervise, nothing changed.

This led me to a personal crisis, feeling that this was very difficult or not for me… that’s how I came to a supervisor who did TFP, and little by little, the situation became more organized, and so did my internal feelings. I discovered an approach that worked with the type of patient that I was treating. This was my start, and since then, I have trained in various seminars, congresses, and in TFP Latin America, and of course in supervisions, essential to be able to do it well.

Daniela Saralegui

Daniela tells us that this initial “chaos” gave way to a more orderly and structured way of working with clear objectives and easy-to-follow stages. For her, the challenge had not been simple, “being a manualized therapy is a double-edged sword for me. On the one hand, it organizes me, but on the other, I must be careful, given my way of being, I can become a bit rigid, I must always be alert not to lose my spontaneity and closeness, luckily always looking at myself in the session, and in supervision helps me with this.”

This professional start of Daniela marked and fixed her particular interests and challenges. A doubt arose in her about what helped novice therapists like herself. This, coupled with her passion for research, especially qualitative research, embarked on a major project: Investigating Supervision. She is leading the development of a line in this area, focused on researching therapist training, along with Luis Valenciano from Murcia and Verónica Steiner from Chile. “My interest is in conducting empirical research on training, and at the moment, I am starting with supervisions. It is not simple; I would say that this line is divided into three sections.

First, we carried out an exploratory review of what is written in this field; the truth is that quite little, and what there is more from the experiential point of view of the supervisee or from a theoretical point of view. This review examines supervision within the psychoanalytic world. We realized that since the 1980s, different authors have suggested empirical research, but it has remained there, as suggestions

We have decided to take this step and are currently conducting an analysis that will allow us to systematize the dynamics or patterns that occur in a supervision between the supervisee and supervisor. Specifically, we are developing a microanalysis of a supervision session using qualitative methodology and conducting discourse analysis. It has been quite a bit of work, as we are triangulating our analysis with that conducted by research assistants who are working with us. We are also training an artificial intelligence model for emotion recognition, which we hope will contribute to analyzing psychotherapy sessions as well.

Daniela’s project aims to develop a tool that can help therapists better identify and understand the emotions of the supervisee and supervisor during supervision sessions. By collecting and analyzing data from facial expressions, tone of voice, and other nonverbal indicators, the goal was to create an accurate and efficient model of emotion recognition. The objective is that this model can be used to help therapists adapt their interventions to the emotional needs of each supervisee, thus improving therapeutic outcomes.

In addition, Daniela is working on the concept of “intangibles,” which refers to the skills and knowledge that are not easily measurable but are fundamental to the success of supervision in clinical practice. Daniela believed that these “intangibles” are an important part of supervision and are directly related to the quality of care provided to patients. Therefore, she is developing an innovative approach to supervision that includes the evaluation of these “intangibles, ” along with other, more measurable skills and knowledge.

“All of the innovative research I have developed has been driven by my supervisors, Verónica and Luis, with whom we now work in a research laboratory where we jointly develop studies that seek to support our teaching models with empirical evidence.”

Undoubtedly, Daniela’s work is much more than a simple career. She has a passion to help therapists improve the quality of care they provide to their patients, especially in her country, where psychotherapy focused on transfer is still unknown. Daniela hopes to make a real contribution to clinical practice and the training of new therapists, so that they can avoid the mistakes she made when she began as a therapist.

In summary, Daniela is committed to the development of new tools and approaches to improve the clinical practice and training of therapists. Her work on emotion recognition and “intangibles” in supervision is an example of her innovative approach to and dedication to the constant improvement of patient care. Undoubtedly, Daniela is a therapist with a great future, and will be a true leader in her field. Daniela hopes to make a real contribution to Transference Focused Psychotherapy.

I hope that this helps therapists who are starting out, so that hopefully no one goes through the disorder I went through, and I hope that it also helps to spread awareness of this technique in my country, which is still unknown. Although in recent years this has been slowly changing, and more and more people are seeking us out, consulting with us, and wishing to refer patients, however, it is a vicious circle, there are people who are trained, but this is complemented with supervision, and there are few supervisors, meaning we are in a moment of being trapped, I hope this will be resolved so that with more people trained we can begin to develop the technique in other contexts, and who knows, perhaps someday have a presence in the public system of my country.

Daniela Saralegui

Ps. Veronica Steiner

Veronica Steiner Segal is a Chilean clinical psychologist who graduated in 1998. Since her beginnings she has been working with patients with Severe Personality Disorders in different health institutions in her country, and since 2018 she is a certified TFP therapist. In 2019 she obtained her accreditation as a teacher and supervisor. Since the same year she is coordinator of Grupo TFP Chile. She is the Executive Officer for the Board and she collaborates with the T&E Committee. She also teaches at the University of Valparaiso, in the Department of Psychiatry, where she also teaches in the Diploma of Severe Personality Disorders.
She collaborates in different courses looking for the diffusion of TFP. Together with Luis Valenciano and Pepa Gonzalez she directs an important training in TFP for Spanish speaking students, Instituto TFP Hispanoamerica.

TFP Chile WebsitE

On May 13, an event an oral “Festschrift” was held, in which the part of the ISTFP community connected to Cornell and special guests gathered with Otto Kernberg to celebrate his retirement as Director of the Personality Disorder Institute of New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical College.

More than 90 colleagues and members of his family paid heartfelt tribute through special words dedicated by Nancy Mc Williams, John Oldham, Salman Akhtar, Mark Solms, and Stephan Doering.

Undoubtedly, it was a moment of many mixed emotions.

Many voices honouring the same man

A lot can be said about Otto, his versatility and his skills in different fields make it difficult to choose how to pay tribute to him. Not surprisingly, everyone who spoke at the Festchrift chose a similar path, by addressing not only his long career and inspiration for many mental health professionals and therapists, but also his human qualities.

The Festschrift turned out to be an event full of emotions and memories. Inevitably, everyone present started to recall how and when they met Otto and what an important part of our professional development and work he has been.

Otto is a master in building bridges between different worlds.

John Oldham

John Oldham highlighted Otto’s mastery in building bridges between different worlds, between the world of psychoanalytic theory, the world of the clinic, the world of medicine, last but not least the world of research. This is only possible through particular traits that characterize his persona, such as his determination, and the ability to visualize a clear goal to guide his work. Nancy Mc Williams mentioned how difficult it is to summarize the contributions of someone who has dedicated himself to the study of so many phenomena associated with mental health, art, politics, neuroscience, supervision, education, love and aggression. She decided to show us who Otto through a personal anecdote. 

When I needed help, Otto treated me with a perfect combination of respect, consideration and honest criticism

Nancy McWilliams

It was 1991 and Nancy was writing a book as an introduction to psychoanalytic thinking. With this goal, she decided to ask Otto Kernberg, whom she had not met in person yet, for help. We all know how generous Otto is, so he did not hesitate to dedicate an hour of lunch, several pieces of advice and text recommendations to her. From there, a close relationship was forged that lasts to this day. Nancy recalls that day with various emotions such as “that lunch was the perfect combination of respect, consideration and honest criticism”.

Otto is an example of generosity of knowledge, kindness and a great capacity to forgive

Salman Akhtar

Similarly, Dr. Salman Akhtar took us back to 1978, when he met Otto for the first time at a lecture. Dr. Akhtar recalls “I did not understand a single word he said”. Hearing that, several Festschrift attendees smiled in complicity, as they surely identified with Dr Akhtar’s experience. In 1978, although he did not understand much of what Otto was talking about, he could tell that Dr. Kernberg was an eminence, and that his thinking was enticing. He decided to start reading his books. However, it was not until 5 or 6 years later that he was able to meet Otto in person, Dr. Akhtar defines the following 40 years of his career as “constant dedication”, highlighting Otto’s great generosity, referring to him as “generosity of knowledge, kindness, great capacity to forgive”. 

Dr. Akhtar, with an unmatched skill of language, highlighted above all Dr. Kernberg’s ability to delicately and precisely use irony, as well as his great capacity to unite and synthesize. He said, “What could someone born Jewish in Vienna, raised in Chile, a Catholic country, living in Topeka, Kansas do? Well, he could dedicate himself to synthesizing”. And yes, Otto is a synthesizer of different thoughts, a unifier of theories, a builder, but above all a noble, generous, and very respectful man.

Not an ideal, but surely an inspiration

And so one by one they spoke and paid tribute to Otto, all agreeing on his refusal to be idealized and his attachment to reality, because the reality is that on that Friday, May 13, everyone spoke of a dedicated Otto Kernberg, humble, generous with his knowledge, able to support and make us feel that we can all go far, and ahead of his time, trusting and supporting women long before others. So much knowledge transmitted with unmatched simplicity.

Many of us are fortunate to live in times where Otto is still a great teacher giving the best he has, to witness some of his qualities and employ them in life, and why not say it, it is because of him that many of us are today in this great family that is the ISTFP.

Thank you Otto!

Dear Colleagues,

First, I hope everyone has had the opportunity to have a good holiday break and a good start to the new year.

My understanding is that the classical Greeks taught us to “observe moderation in all things” (it sounds like a different way to say “avoid splitting”).

In that spirit, I would like to direct your attention to the post from Mathieu Norton Poulin, our Co-Chair of the ISTFP Public Relations Committee.

Mathieu outlines a system of email communication that is designed to keep you from the annoyance of getting too many ISTFP communications but to assure that you get important news, information, and resources from our organization. His letter is of particular interest to those who have a leadership role in their local TFP group. I would like to thank Mathieu and the rest of the PR Committee for their hard and successful work.

A second thought is the power of the discussion that took place last week between Otto Kernberg and Thomas Kohut, PhD. It was the first part of a series of meetings sponsored by the Austen Riggs Center, entitled “Refugees and Immigrants: Their Experience and Contribution to Psychoanalysis in North America”. The discussion, moderated by Nancy McWilliams, was both very moving and very wise. It is reminder of our great good fortune in having Otto Kernberg as the inspiration of our group.

While this Austen Riggs meeting was not an ISTFP event, our new communications system sent notification of the discussion to our members, and I noticed many of your names among the 750 people who attended virtually. If you missed the event and would like to see it, the recorded version will be available from Austen Riggs in a month.

My final theme in this letter will be to encourage as broad participation as possible from the different TFP groups. All of our component parts have talented and creative members. At the beginning of TFP, the PDI in New York was the source of most TFP publications. Since then, the TFP literature has been enriched by contributions from many of you. I would like to encourage an increase in contributions from our different members. My contacts with you provide ample evidence of the richness of clinical, theoretical, and research thinking. There are papers to be written (I have in mind the example of an impressive case of treating a DID patient with TFP, among many others). So please do not hesitate to put your ideas on paper. If you need someone to work with or to offer you some mentorship, we can try to provide that.

In the spirit of maximizing the involvement of the different groups, Verónica Steiner, our new Executive Officer, has been meeting with leaders of the different TFP communities throughout the world in an effort to better co-ordinate our international community. In welcoming Verónica into this position, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Luis Valenciano for his years of excellent service as Executive Officer as he transitions to the role of Director of Training and Education.

My gratitude also goes out to Nel Draijer for her excellent work and the important changes she made as Director of Training and Education for many years.

Another transition to note is John Clarkin’s stepping down as ISTFP Director of Research, after having created that role and providing essential leadership in the research necessary both to establish TFP as an evidence-base treatment and to provide evidence of its mechanisms of change.

I welcome Emanuele Preti as the new Director of Research and am excited about his vision for future research directions for the ISTFP.

Well, that sums it up: a combination of change and continuity as we strive to meet the needs of those suffering from serious personality disorders.

I thank you all for your commitment to that goal.

Best wishes,
Frank

Frank E. Yeomans, MD, PhD
President ISTFP

Frank E. Yeomans, MD, PhD

Frank E. Yeomans, MD, PhD, is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College and Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University. He is a Senior Consultant in and teaches internationally for the Personality Disorders Institute, and is in private practice in White Plains and New York City.

Dear ISTFP members,

The 7th ISTFP conference ended just over two months ago, and I am still reflecting on how stimulating it was, both intellectually and emotionally. Like me, those of you who attended were able to witness our strong sense of community that prevails despite the challenges to group cohesion wonderfully described during the conference by Miguel Angel Gonzalez Torres.

Our sense of community strengthens each of us in numerous ways, so it is important that we nurture this sense of community on an ongoing basis. One way to accomplish this is to enhance our ability to share different skills and resources.

To formalize this ability to share and communicate, the ISTFP’s Public Relations and Communications Committee is creating a complimentary service that will be provided to all TFP groups. We call this service “The ISTFP Mailing List Project”. This will be especially relevant to those of you who plan lectures, trainings, and other academic events.

What is a mailing list?

Mathieu Norton-Poulin, M.Ps.

Mathieu Norton-Poulin is a psychologist in private practice in Gatineau, Québec. He graduated from Laval University in 1995 and started his training in transference focused psychotherapy in 2005. Member of the TFP-Québec group he as been practicing has a certified TFP therapist for the last 9 years. Since 2009 he organized several training events and has given lectures on TFP for medical doctors and college students. He maintains a blog where he write, in plain words, articles to explain TFP to the general public.

READ THE AUTHOR’S BLOG

In this issue of our research digest, we focus on a very recent article from Eric Fertuck, Ph.D. and colleagues entitled:

Rejection Distress Suppresses Medial Prefrontal Cortex in Borderline Personality Disorder.

Dr. Fertuck is an Associate Professor of Psychology at CUNY, NY, a certified TFP supervisor and therapist, a psychoanalyst, as well as a member of ISTFP. The article investigates the neurobiological underpinning of distress related to social exclusion, often a core symptom of borderline personality disorder (BPD). We chose to feature this article not simply because its result shed light on the biological underpinning of BPD, which is of course of interest for our community, but also because its methods are driven by the profound understanding of emotional processes that TFP, and psychoanalytic approaches, allow. By applying a deeper conceptual understanding of social rejection, Fertuck et al. help elucidate a biological mechanism that in the past has been investigated as a categorical, insular, function, leading to mixed results that have been difficult to replicate. We see this contribution as one of the first compelling papers utilizing awareness gained from the psychotherapy setting and psychoanalytic theory to deepen biological knowledge. This type of studies and approaches breaks the stigma of the absence of foundations in psychotherapy and psychoanalytic theory, likewise contributing to the scientific knowledge of clinical effectiveness through its different neurobiological mechanisms.

First, we will quickly review the results of Fertuck et al., to then focus on the creativity of their methodological strategy.

Prior studies have investigated rejection sensitivity by employing a paradigm called the Cyberball game, which is a computer-driven algorithm in which a human subject and two additional virtual players toss a ball to each other in a virtual environment. In one phase of the game, a ball is tossed with equal probability to the subject and to the additional players. In a second phase, the human subject is consistently excluded from receiving the ball. Prior studies have used fMRI to measure brain activity in human subjects while they play Cyberball during inclusion and exclusion phases.

Fertuck et al. studied rejection sensitivity in two groups of subjects, patients with BPD and a control group. Subjects played a modified version of the Cyberball game, and were asked to report their degree of rejection distress after each run. The authors found an inverse correlation between stress related to rejection and the rostro-medial prefrontal cortex (rmPFC) response to exclusion events. Both groups showed similar levels of rmPFC activity in relation to exclusion events, but not surprisingly BPD patients reported higher rejection distress. Strikingly, as more rejection distress was reported, rmPFC responses to rejection events decreased in BPD patients but not in controls. Stronger modulation of the rmPFC response by rejection distress was associated with higher trait rejection expectation.

The authors conclude that rmPFC may normally play an important role in mentalization processes that regulate emotional responses to social rejection. BPD patients may therefore fail to maintain or upregulate rmPFC activity to regulate emotional responses to social rejection, with concomitant inverse coupling between rmPFC activity and social rejection distress contributing to heightened rejection expectation in patients with BPD. This result is of particular interest for the TFP community. More and more studies, several of which are contributions from members of the ISTFP community, have been pointing at an improvement in mentalization as a key therapeutic mechanism for the treatment of personality disorders, as well as a key mediator of TFP efficacy (for example see Keefe et al., 2022; Kivity et al., 2021; Fisher-Kern et al., 2015 and many others).

Fertuck et al., uses their knowledge of psychological functions not only to lead the goals of their study, but also their methodology. Prior studies exploring mechanisms of social rejection in clinical and non-clinical population have led to mixed results, a testament to both the power of fMRI studies to investigate cognitive and emotional processes, as well as the limitation of interpreting those findings given the complexity of human psychology and behavior. The paper by Fertuck et al. strives to overcome this limitation by using a more in depth understanding of interpersonal sensitivity – understanding built both on psychoanalytic theory and on experience gained in the psychotherapy setting – to inform experimental design and data analyses. In making important modifications to the approach taken in prior work, Fertuck et al. obtain data that is likely more applicable to social rejection in real life.

One key example of the modifications made by Fertuck et al. was built on the insight that social inclusion and social exclusion may not simply be two different states of the same underlying affective process, but instead they may be two completely separate processes. When examining the activity of brain areas, prior studies had typically simply subtracted the activity in each brain area in the social exclusion condition from activity observed during the social inclusion condition. If social inclusion and social exclusion are best viewed as distinct processes, then simply subtracting activity across the two conditions may not elucidate how the brain mediates each distinct process. The best approach may therefore be to understand brain activity that underlies each process separately and in each of their own contexts, a key insight taken to heart in the Fertuck et al. paper.

A second key modification made by Fertuck et al. recognized the critical importance of considering the context of rejection events during social exclusion. For example, a social rejection in the context of several recently experienced social inclusions may be perceived differently than if a social rejection is experienced in the context of repeated social exclusion. And indeed this may be the key difference between BPD patients and the rest of the population.

This insight may be critically important for understanding psychopathology and treatment. In everyday life, everyone experiences social exclusion from time to time. However, the development of issues with interpersonal sensitivity for an individual may arise in part from the fact that there was a pattern of social exclusion during her or his psychological development.

Clearly, these results must be replicated and the study extended. But the thoughtfulness of the methodological approach in this paper is striking. Over the last 20 years, a plethora of fMRI studies have been published investigating both clinical and non-clinical human populations, often reporting conflicting results, arguably because of difficulties interpreting the complexity of human behavior. Another limitation has been the number of participants, which has often been insufficient, and the follow-up time to ensure accurate conclusions regarding neural functioning and social cognition.

One way of overcoming the ambiguity of this large body of research is to resort to reductionist behaviors, that is less equivocal in terms of underlying cognitive processes. This is typically obtained in animal studies such as non- human primates experiments. Another way is to approach complex behavior thoughtfully, without preconceived assumptions about cognitive processes underlying it, and this is what Fertuck et al, are doing. This approach is likely to be critical if significant headway is to be made in understanding the neurobiology underlying complex disorders like BPD that are difficult if not impossible to study in animal models.

Silvia Bernardi

Meeting Glauco feels like an adventure, as he wears many hats, he is passionate about his work as a head of Mental Health Unit of Hospital de Emergencias Villa El Salvador, but above all he is passionate about studying.

He has studied a master’s degree in Health Management, and is currently pursuing two more master’s degrees, one in Clinical Epidemiology and the other in Personality Disorders.
He is also trained and certified in Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Transference Focused Therapy (TFP).

Dedicated to the study and treatment of complex patients

Glauco has dedicated almost his entire professional career to the study and treatment of complex patients. Along his path he met several years ago with “patients who had many problems, with chronic complications, various comorbidities and with whom the technical tools that I had did not work”. He began to search for evidence-based therapies in the literature and came across TFP. “That’s when I understood that there were more than just symptoms, there was a human side of the patients, I realized what it means to address and look at the entire identity of a person, their interpersonal difficulties and above all a way to understand and work with strong emotional crises of patients that I found very difficult to handle with other approaches”.

The discovery of TFP

In his search to find what would be useful to help his patients, he started finding articles by Dr. Otto Kernberg and Richard Hersh, among others. He was quickly struck by the emphasis of the therapeutic contract, highlighting that contracting not only “puts the patient first” but also provides great care and protection to the therapist as a person. This was new and very appealing for Glauco who decided to definitely dig deeper into the study of patients with personality pathology with TFP.

Confronting prejudice

Glauco says that what he found most challenging about TFP has been the prejudice of some colleagues and the scientific community of his country, still focused on classical analytic techniques. “I see that as a therapy that still carries great stigma and this cannot be appealing to young therapists seeking training”. “Somehow”, Glauco says, “this stigma is passed on to patients. We cannot continue to work without diagnoses, without goals, without clarity of what is being done, wasting patients’ time and adding to their suffering. Our patients come with great fears and we must start by explaining to them what we do with clarity, we must start by making them lose their fear of this technique”.

The challenges of managing transference and countertransference

As he started his training in TFP, Glauco was met with another challenge: the management of transference and counter transference. “I realize that once I understand the dominant dyad it is difficult for me to make it explicit to the patient, I realize that I fear the patient’s reaction and this fear makes me lose control of the session”. On the other hand, Glauco tells us that since he has been practicing TFP he has also gained several benefits, today he has clearer personal limits, “it has helped me to put forward conditions and agreements to the patient for making clear how the process will be from the beginning, I know what my role and what the patient’s role is”.

The future of TFP

We asked him about what are the challenges that TFP will face in the future. He thinks the stigma around the technique is the biggest challenge for trainees and patients. He says “It cannot be seen as a hard technique, but neither should we fall into being overvalidating with patients who don’t respect limits, we must be seen as therapists with a technique in which the patient really works and strives to get ahead”.

To conclude, Glauco mentioned the importance of diffusing knowledge about TFP “I think we are growing, more and more people are interested, but we must continue and go out to the world and continue to spread knowledge”.

Veronica Steiner

Ps. Veronica Steiner

Veronica Steiner Segal is a Chilean clinical psychologist who graduated in 1998. Since her beginnings she has been working with patients with Severe Personality Disorders in different health institutions in her country, and since 2018 she is a certified TFP therapist. In 2019 she obtained her accreditation as a teacher and supervisor. Since the same year she is coordinator of Grupo TFP Chile. She is the Executive Officer for the Board and she collaborates with the T&E Committee. She also teaches at the University of Valparaiso, in the Department of Psychiatry, where she also teaches in the Diploma of Severe Personality Disorders.
She collaborates in different courses looking for the diffusion of TFP. Together with Luis Valenciano and Pepa Gonzalez she directs an important training in TFP for Spanish speaking students, Instituto TFP Hispanoamerica.

TFP Chile WebsitE

Dear colleagues and ISTFP members,

The European Society for the Study of Personality Disorders (ESSPD) is proud to announce the third ESSPD Summer School for early career researchers, organized in collaboration with the University of Lausanne, Depart- ment of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychotherapy and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Service, with the financial support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

The aim of the summer school is to increase the meth- odological competencies in conducting high quality de- velopmental psychopathology research in the domain of personality disorders. Topics include: developmental psy- chopathology (i.e., prediction of self-harm and suicide in adolescence), inclusion of family in research designs (i.e., mothers with personality disorders and their offspring), prospective long-term follow-up studies, psychotherapy, research designs (i.e., effectiveness, mediation, modera- tion), assessment of emotional processing, socio-cognitive processing and reflective functioning in adolescence.

We will adopt a theory-integrative, disorder-oriented and evidence-based approach. Throughout the one-week pro- gram, the focus will be on the plurality of methods, their productive use for specific research questions and their creative combinations in order to deepen the understand- ing of developmental pathways and the effects of pre- vention and intervention to personality disorders in youth.

Teaching methodologies include interactive presentations, workshop exercises on actual research material, plenary and small group discussions, individual work, speed-talk presentations, playfully structured question-and-answer sessions.

Where?

The summer school takes place in a relaxing and inspiring atmosphere at the picturesque retreat center Crêt-Bérard, calmly perching over Lac Léman in Switzerland, one of the largest lakes in Western Europe. Activities as part of a social program will be organized.

When ?

Sunday, August 27th 2023 (arrival day) – Saturday, September 2nd, 2023 (departure day); 5 full days residential).

For whom ?

PhD students, MDs, or early post-doctoral fellows affiliated with a European university.
Deadline : Applications by February 1st, 2023 by e-mail to [email protected].

All applications must contain a letter of motivation, a curriculum vitae and a 1-page summary of the relevant research project (in one PDF file). Applications from Eastern Europe are explicitly encouraged.

Full fee EUR 750 (includes registration to all scientific ac- tivities, six overnight stays at Crêt-Bérard, all meals/coffee breaks, and organized social activities).

Reduced fee EUR 300 for participants from Eastern Euro- pean countries (includes registration to all scientific ac- tivities, six overnight stays at Crêt-Bérard, all meals and organized social activities).

Important: ESSPD, with funding from SNSF, fully supports financially up to five participants from Eastern European countries (will be paid for: reduced fee and travel expens- es). Please attach one letter of support (e.g. from your supervisor) if you are interested to apply for this funding.

Flyer of the event (PDF)

ESSPD

The European Society for the Study of Personality Disorders (ESSPD)

ESSPD website