https://doi.org/10.4081/ripppo.2022.611

Patient personality characteristics and therapeutic integration: treating borderline personality and emotionally dysregulated-dysphoric personality features

Vol. 25 No. 2 (2022)
Submitted: February 11, 2022
Accepted: May 12, 2022
Published: June 30, 2022
Personality, borderline, technique, SWAP, CPPS.
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Authors

Saryn R. Levy
Private Practice, Silver Springs, MD, United States.
Mark J. Hilsenroth
hilsenroth@adelphi.edu
Adelphi University, Garden City, NY, United States.
Francine Conway
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, United States.
Jesse Owen
University of Denver, Denver, CO, United States.

This study examines the relationship between patient personality characteristics and therapeutic integration. Within a sample of patients (N=93) receiving outpatient psychodynamically- oriented psychotherapy, we assessed patient Borderline and Emotionally Dysregulated personality features through the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP-200), and therapeutic technique using the Comparative Psychotherapy Process Scale (CPPS) during an early treatment session. We examined personality dimensionally, psychotherapy interventions across different theoretical orientations, as well as psychotherapy integration. These analyses revealed an overlap between the Borderline Clinical Prototype and the Emotionally Dysregulated-Dysphoric Q-factor, with the former associated with higher use of integration and the latter associated with higher use of either psychodynamicinterpersonal or cognitive-behavioural interventions. Secondary analyses also indicated the greater presence of interventions oriented towards emotional exploration and to the didactic instruction of effective symptom coping techniques across both of these personality subtypes early in treatment. The key differences between these personality types, as well as the theoretical, empirical, and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

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Levy, S. R., Hilsenroth, M. J., Conway, F., & Owen, J. (2022). Patient personality characteristics and therapeutic integration: treating borderline personality and emotionally dysregulated-dysphoric personality features. Research in Psychotherapy: Psychopathology, Process and Outcome, 25(2). https://doi.org/10.4081/ripppo.2022.611
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