![]() |
|
APA Psychotherapy Training Videos are intended solely for educational purposes for mental health professionals. Viewers are expected to treat confidential material found herein according to strict professional guidelines. Unauthorized viewing is prohibited.
In Dependent Personality Disorder, Robert F. Bornstein demonstrates his integrated treatment approach to working with clients who have a dependent coping style. This approach integrates techniques from the psychodynamic and cognitive traditions, along with experiential and behavioral elements. Treatment initially focuses on helping the client gain insight into the origin and dynamics of their problematic dependency. In this session, Dr. Bornstein works with a recently married woman in her early 30s who is experiencing problems because her husband is critical and needy, and she is not assertive enough to deny his requests for help. Dr. Bornstein helps the client to see her part in creating this dependent dynamic, and together they look for ways to move toward a healthier relationship.
Effective treatment of the dependent patient requires an integrated treatment strategy drawing primarily from the psychodynamic and cognitive traditions, but also involving behavioral and experiential techniques. The initial focus of treatment is on helping patients gain insight into the origins and dynamics of their problematic dependency—the history of their dependent coping style and the factors that maintain this style in the present. Once adequate insight has been achieved, cognitive and experiential strategies are introduced to alter dysfunctional cognitions and emotional responses, with the goal of moving the patient from unhealthy (mindless, reflexive) dependency to healthy (mindful, goal-directed) connectedness. The final phase of treatment focuses on strengthening coping skills and implementing relapse-prevention strategies.
Robert F. Bornstein, PhD, received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1986, completed a year-long internship at the Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, NY, and is professor of psychology at Adelphi University.
APA Videos
APA Books
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||