Dear members of ISTFP,
It’s already been a year since the ISTFP’s Public Relation and Communications Committee has been working at bringing our community closer and finding ways to disseminate the model more efficiently. This is why I feel that, before introducing the main subject, I should give you a summary of what as been done so far. I the past year we have:
- Successfully orchestrated and coordinated the promotion of the highly anticipated 7th ISTFP conference, ensuring a wide reach and strong attendance from professionals in the field.
- Developed and curated engaging newsletters, including the ISTFP members Newsletter and the Mental Health Professionals Newsletter, providing valuable insights, updates, and resources on TFP to a diverse audience.
- Established a comprehensive and GDPR-compliant database of mental health professionals, facilitating effective promotion of TFP events while respecting European regulations on personal data protection.
- Implemented a standardized system for event organizers to submit new training events, streamlining the process and ensuring consistency and efficiency in event management.
- Enhanced the ISTFP website by creating a dedicated TRAINING section, offering a comprehensive repository of seminars, courses and events related to TFP, catering to the needs of professionals and students alike.
- Enriched the ISTFP website with a NEWS section, featuring the latest updates, research findings, and noteworthy developments in the field of TFP, keeping the community informed and engaged.
Reaching and maintaining these achievements take a lot of time and energy. Veronica and I would like to express our gratitude to our team, Diana Tellez, Theophilus Kok, Silvia Bernardi and Glauco Valdivieso for their involvement in these different projects. We would also like to thank Darlene McCormick, ISTFP website webmaster, for her counsel, and Frank Yeomans who has shown tremendous support and guidance for our ambitious initiatives.
That being said, let’s go to our main subject: What are people saying about us?
The public image of TFP
During my first meeting with Veronica Steiner, as co-chair of the Public Relations and Communication’s committee, she presented me with a homemade poll she conducted with general mental health professionals from Chile about their perception of Transference Focused Psychotherapy. I thought it was a great idea for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of our current dissemination strategy. So, a year later, I decided to mobilize the whole team to use social media to ask mental health professionals from their country simple question. While it is an informal and unscientific poll, it provides information for us to think about. The question is the poll was:
What are your thoughts or impressions on Transference Focused Psychotherapy (TFP)? Please provide any ideas, opinions, or experiences you may have regarding this treatment for personality disorders.
This is what they answered:
I know nothing about TFP
No tengo mucha información sobre este enfoque
I don’t have much information about this treatment. (Peru)
Connaissance limitée, outre le nom des auteurs, (…) je ne connais pas l’approche.
Limited knowledge, aside from the names of the authors, (…) I am not familiar with the treatment (Canada) .
TFP is violent
No sé qué es eso, y si se deriva de la teoría de Kernberg, debe ser violento. Es una técnica distante de los pacientes, el terapeuta es muy frío y sigue su técnica como si fuera la biblia.
I don’t know what it is, and if it derives from Kernberg’s theory it must be violent. It is a technique distant from patients, the therapist is very cold and follows his technique like the bible. (Chile)
(…) trouver cette approche comme inutilement violente pour les client(es) axée sur une confrontation hâtive à leurs défenses et enjeux et dans un cadre inutilement rigide
(…) find this approach unnecessarily violent towards clients, focused on prematurely confronting their defenses and issues within an unnecessarily rigid framework. (Canada)
J’ai jamais pratiqué cette approche mais j’ai souvent eu vent que c’était une approche plus cassante et carrée que les approches psychodynamiques comme l’intersubjectivité.
I have never practiced this approach, but I have often heard that it is a more abrasive and rigid approach compared to psychodynamic approaches such as intersubjectivity. (Canada)
TFP is the same as Psychoanalysis
Pensé que era una forma de psicoanálisis, más enfocada en el pasado y poco estructurada.
I thought it was a form of psychoanalysis, more focused on the past and poorly structured. (Chile)
Muchos piensan que es igual al psicoanálisis clásico
Many people think it is the same as classical psychoanalysis. (Peru)
Я не повністю розумію унікальність цього методу; інші психоаналітичні школи також вважають контртрансференцію основним інструментом роботи з людьми, що мають розлад межової особистості.
I do not fully understand the uniqueness of the method; other psychoanalytic schools also consider countertransference to be the main tool for working with people with a borderline. (Ukraine)
TFP is not an evidence-based treatment
Es una técnica sin evidencia real y útil para un grupo muy pequeño de pacientes.
It is a technique without real evidence and useful for a very small group of patients. (Chile)
C’est de la psychanalyse et plusieurs études on démontré que c’est une pseudoscience sans fondements scientifiques.
It is psychoanalysis, and several studies have shown that it is a pseudoscience without scientific foundations. (Canada)
TFP is for a closed group of elitist
每週兩次，在實際層面上，每次前往的財務壓力並不小，而我希望每週都能夠實踐這種工作方法。
Twice a week, at the practical level, the financial pressure of visiting is not small, and I want to practice this working method twice a week (China)
Es un grupo muy cerrado, imposible acceder a ellos.
It is a very closed group, impossible to access them. (Chile)
la tfp a la mauvaise réputation d’être réservée a « l’élite » privilégiée par ses contacts.
TFP has the reputation of being reserved for the privileged “elite” favored by its connections. (Canada)
TFP is a empirically supported treatment
Tengo una impresión positiva de este enfoque terapéutico respaldado empíricamente. Esta aproximación me parece interesante porque reconoce la importancia de las relaciones y las representaciones internas en el desarrollo y mantenimiento de los trastornos de personalidad.
I have a positive impression of this empirically supported therapeutic approach. This approach seems interesting to me because it recognizes the importance of relationships and internal representations in the development and maintenance of personality disorders. (Mexico)
尤其是在循证医疗的大背景下，能站得住脚，有实证检验真的很不容易，其实这一块还是能让患者在接受这种疗法上更有信心。
Especially in the context of evidence-based healthcare, it’s not easy to stand up to empirical testing, and this piece actually gives patients more confidence in accepting this therapy. (China)
TFP is a treatment with a clear clinical rationale and structured interventions
Personnellement, la TFP demeure une de mes approches privilégiées pour sa conception du cadre thérapeutique, ses rationnels cliniques clairs et logiques, le psychodiagnostic structurel et les pistes d’interprétation qu’elle offre, notamment dans la compréhension et l’identification des dyades relationnelles.
Personally, the TFP (Transference-Focused Psychotherapy) remains one of my preferred approaches due to its conception of the therapeutic framework, clear and logical clinical rationales, structural psychodiagnostic, and the interpretative pathways it offers, particularly in understanding and identifying relational dyads. (Canada)
En la formación descubres que se trata de una terapia centrada en el presente y en la visualización de las representaciones actuales de las relaciones objetales, con una estructura sólida y técnicas que te permiten discernir los conflictos afectivos y las diadas dominantes en la relación a través del transferencia como laboratorio para la observación del paciente.
In the training, you discover that it is a therapy focused on the present and on observing the current representation of object relationships, with a solid structure and techniques that allow you to discern affective conflicts and dominant dyads in the relationship through transference as a laboratory for patient observation. (Chile)
Переклад українською: ефективний психотерапевтичний інструмент у роботі з повним спектром психопатології. Здається логічним та послідовним.
An effective psychotherapeutic tool in working with the full spectrum of psychopathology. It seems logical and consistent. (Ukraine)
Kernberg is a genius
Переклад українською: Добрий метод для клієнтів з низькою функціональністю межового розладу. Кернберг – геній.
good method for low functioning borderline clients. Kernberg is a genius. (Ukraine)
Переклад українською: Модель терапії Отто Кернберга є дуже цінною, якісною та зрозумілою лише тоді, коли її представляє сам Отто Кернберг.
Otto Kernberg’s model of therapy is very valuable, qualitative and understandable only when presented by Otto Kernberg himself. (Ukraine)
Переклад українською: Я вважаю, що ТФП повинен бути ефективним психотерапевтичним інструментом у роботі з повним спектром психопатології. Це здається логічним та послідовним. Г-н Кернберг не “винаходить колесо”, шукаючи нові теорії або відкриття.
I think TFP should be an effective psychotherapeutic tool in working with the full spectrum of psychopathology. It seems logical and consistent. Mr Kernberg does not “reinvent the wheel” by looking for new theories or revelations. (Ukraine)
When we read all of these quotes at once, it might seen a little discouraging especially because of all the energy the we put on perfecting, validating, and disseminating the model. But I am sure my fellow members have a stable identity and will see these perceptions as internal objects from the those who participated in the survey that have to be clarified and tactfully confronted.
From a positive perspective, feedback from mental health professionals who do not regularly utilize TFP but have attended TFP conferences or new TFP trainees (like the members of the Ukraine cohort) reaffirms that dedicated time spent with them can significantly challenge and correct misconceptions surrounding Transference Focused Psychotherapy.
As you can see, these findings tell us the there is hope but still a lot to do so let’s get back to work!
Mathieu Norton-Poulin
On behalf of the PR committee
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 as a certified TFP therapist for the last 11 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.
