Complex Cases: Treatment of chronic and recurrent mental health problems by Personality Functioning Informed Therapy, Napier

Chronic and recurrent mental health problems are often not just a challenge to the patient but also to the therapist, as these severe conditions frequently defy standard treatment approaches. Many of the Axis I disorders (depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, somatoform disorders, addictions and diffuse psychiatric complaints) have a high risk of becoming chronic conditions that eventually wear out the patient and the treatment providers. Treatments that aim at symptom reduction often fail to address the maintaining factors that relate to the intra-psychic dynamics of personality functioning. The workshop addresses this gap by utilizing an integrative approach of evidence-based therapies that focuses on personality functioning as an underlying factor in maintaining chronic mental health disorders. It aims to refine therapists’ conceptualization of these complex cases and to enhance their repertoire of interventions based in a clear understanding of the patients’ pathology.

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