Pragmatic Case Studies in Psychotherapy

JANUARY 26, 2022 -- FROM THE EDITOR  

ANNOUNCING THE PUBLICATION OF OUR 62nd ISSUE (Vol. 18, Module 1)  

We are happy to welcome you to our new home, The National Register for Health Service Psychologists. In future months you will see a change in our Home Page format to reflect PCSP’s joint identity as both a Case Study Journal and a Case Study Database. Our latest issue is described and access provided below.  

A Short-Term Training Clinic Model for Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) in Treating Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD): The Case of “Jane”

*** Michael Marks, Tampa Bay Center for Relational Psychology, Tampa Bay, FL   

Commentaries 

*** Gillian Galen, Blaise Aguirre, & Julianne Wilner Tirpak, McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 

***Allison Ruork, Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, NJ

EDITOR'S NOTE

          Dialectical Behavior Therapy is a complex, multimodal and multilevel theory designed to address the many facets of individuals with intense emotional dysfunction disorders. Specifically, DBT simultaneously involves four modes of treatment: individual therapy, structured group training in over 24 separate social and intrapersonal skills, and telephone consultation for the patient; and consultation team for the therapist. DBT treatment is directed at addressing life-threatening behaviors, treatment-interfering behaviors, and quality-of-life interfering behaviors.

          The present case study, Michael Marks' Case of “Jane,” provides a detailed picture of how all these elements intertwined to produce at times a turbulent and conflictual therapeutic relationship with Jane, with an eventual positive outcome.

          The Commentary by Galen, Aguirre, and Tirpak attribute Marks’ struggles with Jane to the DBT equivalent of “countertransference” dynamics in his therapeutic relationship with her; and the Commentary by Ruork attributes these struggles in part to Marks’ under-use of the DBT concept of “secondary targets.”

          In his Response to the Commentaries, Marks tells us: “I found both of these perspectives very on target, and they stimulated me to reconstruct a crucial theme in the therapy from excerpts of therapy process in sessions 14-24 of my case study of Jane.” This theme involved Marks becoming aware of the role his own emotional experiencing played in polarizing the relationship with Jane and how he used this awareness to enhance his understanding, acceptance, and empathy towards Jane’s problems -- which in turn created the conditions for positive therapeutic progress. Marks ends by reflecting on the value of writing up systematic case studies with sufficient descriptive clinical detail so that valuable secondary analyses can be conducted, like those by Galen et al., by Ruork, and by himself.    

** Below Table of Contents: Click on the article title for the Abstract. Click on the pdf button for the pdf file.