Trauma and Personality Disorder: Integrative psychotherapy of Trauma Induced Personality Disorders, Napier

For many clients with traumatic experiences the consequences of these reach far beyond the primary symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and affective disorders, as many will have suffered long lasting changes in their personality. Their perception of others is often tainted by paranoid and mistrusting schemata, while their sense of self will be severely negative, ranging from deep convictions of being defective, unlovable to strong feelings of helplessness, inferiority and shame, thus resulting in deeply held internal models of the world that are self-perpetuating and making them prone for chronic and recurrent mental health problems. While many evidence based approaches exist to treat the primary symptoms of trauma the secondary consequences are frequently neglected in treatment (at best) and at worst, are seen as hindrances and distractions to the “real treatment” of the PTSD symptoms. Aim of this workshop is to promote a more holistic approach to trauma that will include the personality pathology of the clients as part of the result of their traumatic experiences.

Trained in Germany as a psychotherapist and having worked many years in inpatient units with server and chronic ill clients, I have come to value a psychodynamic understanding of client pathology (Relational Psychoanalysis, Transference Focused Psychotherapy and Mentalizaton Based Therapy) in an effort to find ways that would work to reduce the suffering of clients I met. I have specialized over the years in the treatment of personality disorder (here specifically narcissistic personality disorder), recurrent and chronic psychiatry disorders and complex trauma. I have immigrated to NZ in Oct 2015 have worked for the adult mental health community team in Napier (HBDHB), and am now full-time in private practice.

Fee