John Clarkin, Ph.D. on Transference Focused Therapy

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "John Clarkin, Ph.D. on Transference-Focused Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder", posted August 1, 2007. John Clarkin, Ph.D., a clinicial psychologist, is a proponant of Transference-Focused Therapy (TFT), a form of therapy that updates older transference based psychodynamic psychotherapy ideas. TFT is a semi-manualized therapy, meaning that its principles are written down in a book, but session-by-session therapist directions are not provided. TFT is highly 'here-and-now' focused, using the relationship that forms between patient and therapist as a laboratory environment in which the patient's interpersonal problems will play out. TFT therapists help patients to understand and become aware of their maladaptive interpersonal patterns so that they can start to alter them. TFT therapists encourage patients, many of whom are disabled, to get out and work, even if that work is only on a volunteer basis. Conflicts that occur in the work environment are discussed in therapy