Master Series in Clinical Practice

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 G. Gunderson, MD, instructor

The workshop will provide a pragmatic empirically validated approach to treatment of borderline patients that incorporates aspects of DBT, MBT and TFP. The case will be made that you don’t need specialized training to be an effective therapist. After an initial description of the treatments’ theory and basic principles, some of the major problems in managing borderline patients will be considered; specifically, establishing an alliance, split treatments, integration of families and the management of suicidality. The final section of the workshop will describe the process of acquiring skills, confidence, and satisfaction from treating borderline patients.

Upon completion of the program the student will be able to:

• Provide psychoeducation for borderline patients and their families that encourages hope and aids compliance
• offer practical interventions that facilitate building an alliance
• identify -- and avoid -- interventions that predictably alienate or anger borderline patients
• manage recurrent suicidal threats or self-harm more safely and with less personal burden

Program Code: MS50
6 CE/CME Credits
Location: at MSPP, West Roxbury/Boston

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.

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