Experiential Techniques in Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy with Personality Disorders: The Therapeutic Relationship

This book provides a guide to using experiential techniques, such as imagery rescripting, chairwork, body work, and mindfulness in metacognitive interpersonal therapy to treat personality disorders and PTSD, along with their many comorbid conditions.

Psychotherapy for patients with personality disorders and their associated symptom disorders needs (1) a tailored case formulation, continuously updated and shared with the patient; (2) the use of experiential techniques to challenge embodied, automatic, hard-to-change interpersonal patterns; and (3) active attention to the therapeutic relationship. This book will help readers work along these dimensions, acting as a guide to constructing a client-first model of their own psychological functioning that can be used as a roadmap to change. It includes specific procedures for addressing problems in the therapeutic contract, devising and enacting imagery rescripting and other techniques, interrupting repetitive thinking, and so on. It also includes real case examples, with rich and detailed clinical exchanges for the procedures described.

This comprehensive text will help practicing clinicians of any orientation in working with patients suffering from personality disorders and their associated symptoms.

Giancarlo Dimaggio is editor in chief of the Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session; senior associate editor for the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration and associate editor for Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice. He is a co-founding member of the Center for Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy.

Antonella Centonze is a clinical psychologist at the Center for Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy.

Paolo Ottavi, psychologist and psychotherapist, is the main developer of two published treatments with empirical support: Metacognition Oriented Social Skills Training and Metacognitive-Interpersonal Based Mindfulness Training.

Raffaele Popolo is a co-founding member of the Center for Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy and a trainer at the Società Italiana di Terapia Comportamentale e Cognitiva (SITCC).