title: General principles for treating personality disorder with a prominent inhibitedness trait: towards an operationalizing integrated technique.
abstract: Psychotherapists need to perform tasks such as being empathetic, performing an ongoing assessment of cases, self-disclosing, making explicit treatment contracts, validating patients' experiences and promoting awareness of psychological experience, if they are to be effective in treating personality disorder (PD). Successful therapy also requires a systematic accurate PD model. We suggest here that it is still unclear how, when, and according to what session markers therapists need to perform specific operations to maximize therapeutic gains. This article describes and operationalizes a step-by-step procedure for organizing and delivering the interventions necessary for effective outcomes, such as maintaining a good therapeutic relationship, increasing understanding of mental states, reducing symptoms and improving social adaptation. The procedure is illustrated by reference to the treatment of cases of emotionally overly-constricted PDs. We include a theoretical proposal to facilitate the development of measures for evaluating the efficacy of therapist actions.
authors.affiliation: Centro di Terapia Metacognitiva Interpersonale, Piazza Martiri di Belfiore 4, 00195, Rome, Italy. gdimaje@libero.it
authors.forename: Giancarlo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dimaggio
authors.forename: Giampaolo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Salvatore
authors.forename: Donatella
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fiore
authors.forename: Antonino
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carcione
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nicolò
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Semerari
mesh_terms: D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D055048:Integrative Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010551:Personality; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index