Clinical practice supportive psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder

Abstract

Borderline Personality Disorder is usually unstable due to periods of acute crisis, aggressive behavior, suicide attempts, and even substance abuse. Individual psychotherapy has long been considered the main treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder. Supportive psychotherapy can be used on people who are experiencing stressful situations that the person’s coping mechanisms are unable to cope with, resulting in tension and distress. Individually supportive psychotherapy involves treating the patient with compassion, empathy, and commitment, regardless of whether the therapist agrees or disagrees with the patient’s behavior and thoughts. Supportive psychotherapy seeks to overcome emotional reactivity to stressors and develop ways to inhibit maladaptive impulses. Supportive psychotherapy for Borderline Personality Disorder who have deficits in self-experience by focusing on the dimensions of impulsivity/aggression, affective instability, cognitive/perceptual distortions, and anxiety/inhibition. Supportive psychotherapy sessions discuss the four dimensions according to the patient’s condition, which is expected to help patients overcome emotional reactivity and develop ways to inhibit maladaptive impulses.