Master Series in Clinical Practice

Jointly sponsored by The Continuing Education Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Major Teaching Hospital of Harvard Medical School; Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute; and the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology.

The Master Series affords the chance to spend a complete day with leaders in our field to consider the unique perspective each speaker brings to the challenging dilemmas in both theory and practice. We hope that you will consider joining us for the entire series at a reduced tuition or choose the programs most relevant to your own practice.

John Gunderson, M.D., instructor

This workshop offers training in an empirically validated treatment approach General Psychiatric Management (GPM), which has been demonstrated to equal Dialectical Behavior Therapy's (DBT) effectiveness in treating patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). This GPM program teaches clinicians what they need to know to become competent providers who can derive satisfaction from treating borderline patients. Management strategies such as involving practicality, good sense, and flexibility are emphasized. Listening, validation, judicious self-disclosures and admonishments create a positive relationship in which both the clinicians' concerns and limitations are explicit. Techniques and interventions that facilitate the patient's trust and willingness to become a proactive collaborator will be described. Guidelines for managing the common and usually most burdensome issue of managing suicidality and self-harm (e.g. intersession crises, threats as a call-for-help, excessive use of ER's or hospitals) will be reviewed. How and when to integrate group, family, or other psychotherapies into treatment are also outlined. The workshop utilizes small group and large group discussion, video clips and clinical vignettes to promote interactive learning and a comprehensive understanding of the treatment.Upon completion of the program, the student will be able to:

• Explain the diagnosis to patients and families and establish reasonable expectations for change (psychoeducation)
• Manage the problem of recurrent suicidality and self-harm while limiting personal burden and liability
• Expedite alliance-building via use of medications and homework

John Gunderson, MD, is a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of McLean Hospital's Center's for Treatment, Training, and Research on Borderline Personality Disorder. His seminal studies on the diagnosis, families, psychodynamics, treatment and pathogenesis of borderline personality disorder helped transform the diagnosis from a psychoanalytic construct into an empirically validated and internationally recognized disorder. He chaired the DSM IV work group on personality disorders, and has recently completed two major NIMH-funded studies, one is the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality Disorders Study (CLPS) and the other is a study of the Family Transmission of Borderline Personality Disorder and its Phenotypes. He has been responsible for conceptualizing the borderline patient's core problem as interpersonal hypersensitivity, for pioneering collaborative involvement and compassionate attitudes towards their families, and for writing and revising the seminal and major textbook on their treatment. In honor of these achievements, in 2009 McLean Hospital opened a residential treatment center in Cambridge named the Gunderson Residence. Dr. Gunderson remains actively involved in treating borderline patients using all modalities and is drawing from this experience in writing a manual that will train professionals on how to be effective with these patients. 

Program Code: MS71

6 CE/CME Credits

Location: at MSPP, Newton

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*Only for Master Series attendees who register for multiple dates at the same time.