Australia psychologists: Learn theoretical frameworks and formulation for personality disorders. Enhance your mental health courses with psychoanalytic insights.
Australian psychologists and counsellors working with complex personality dynamics can strengthen their conceptual frameworks through this course. It places personality disorders within a psychoanalytic and developmental framework, drawing on Otto Kernberg, Nancy McWilliams and Peter Fonagy, and explains how well-integrated and disordered personality structures differ. Practitioners learn to recognise defensive strategies and patterns of relating linked to personality disorders and to apply theory to formulation and treatment planning. The course is approved by the Australian Counselling Association for CPD hours.
This talk offers clinicians a comprehensive theoretical grounding for working effectively with clients who present with disturbances of personality. Drawing from key psychoanalytic perspectives, this session introduces foundational concepts for understanding, formulating, and treating personality disorders.
Using the work of renowned theorists such as Otto Kernberg, Nancy McWilliams, and Peter Fonagy, the presentation explores the structural and developmental components of personality, including what differentiates well-ordered from disordered self-organisation. Participants will gain insight into diagnostic considerations, levels of personality organisation, and the defensive strategies commonly observed in clinical presentations.
This lecture is ideal for psychologists seeking to strengthen their conceptual frameworks and enhance therapeutic formulation skills when working with complex personality dynamics
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this talk, participants will be able to:
Understand personality disorders within a psychoanalytic and developmental framework.
Differentiate between well-integrated and disordered personality structures.
Identify key theoretical models used to conceptualise personality pathology.
Recognise common defensive strategies and patterns of relating associated with personality disorders.
Apply theoretical knowledge to support clinical formulation and treatment planning.