The resilience of personality disorders: The possible change through an integrated approach

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Barbara Sartini

Psychosocial Rehabilitation Specialist, Italy

: Int J Ment Health Psychiatry

Abstract

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Personality disorders are diagnosed in 40-60% of psychiatric patients. Those with personality disorder manifested great difficulties in interpersonal relationships and in dealing with everyday life. Although the causes of the disorder are multifactorial, mainly, the common factors concern: (1) Hypersensitivity to life events, (2) Hyper emotional reactivity and (3) Slow return to a baseline psychic equilibrium. The peculiarity is the change of these types of personalities, so emotionally vulnerable, to resilient personalities. Resilience is the ability to cope effectively to everyday adversities, despite the past life’s adverse and traumatic events. It is not a feature, that is present or absent in the individual, but, instead, refers to behaviors, thoughts and actions that can be learned by anyone. It is also observed and verified how the socio-therapy approach in the therapeutic community (Maxwell Jones’s model) integrated with the STEPPS’s training (Nancy Bloom) can develop resilient personalities. This therapeutic and rehabilitative integration allows to increases in the patients those skills necessary to resume positively the control of their lives, doing the individual experiences as: Relationships with caring and supportive people, taking positions of responsibility (socio-therapy), awareness of their strengths and weaknesses and learning of emotional management skills and problem solving (STEPPS).

Biography

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Barbara Sartini has completed her studies as Psychiatric Rehabilitator from Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italy. She is the Coordinator of Raymond Gledhill Community for patients with personality disorders. She teaches art therapy and the clinic evaluation at University in Rome and she is a Trainer of STEPPS since 2010.

E-mail: sartinibarbara83@gmail.com