Understanding Personality Disorders beyond the Diagnosis

Join us as we take a closer look at these questions. This webinar is a 24-hour experiential programme exploring personality disorders and complex difficulties beyond diagnostic criteria.

Across 12 weeks, we will focus on the different forms of distress people experience in various contexts and the responses they may evoke in others. We will also explore the roles one may unknowingly take up within groups.

This webinar is co-produced by therapists and people with lived experiences of mental health systems, with the hope of bringing together different perspectives to build collaborative, therapeutic environments that prioritise each individual’s story. This year, the webinar will also feature guest speakers who will offer insight into what it means to engage with and support people with complex difficulties using therapeutic community principles and relational approaches.

We invite you to explore what it means to work within groups and reflect on the different positions you may occupy within them. This programme may be of interest to those who want to better understand group dynamics across different settings, examine distress from a systemic perspective, and critically reflect on power structures within mental health systems. It may also resonate with those interested in learning how to draw on their inner world while offering care and support in therapeutic contexts, and in exploring the often-unspoken divide between clinicians and those experiencing complex emotional and relational difficulties.

The webinar will be conducted online via Zoom. The space is structured to not follow a top-down format of learning and instead rely on shared knowledge built on experiences, thoughts, associations and critiques.

Participants will submit their reflections based on their learning and journey through the 12 weeks at the end of the webinar as a requirement for completion.