Personality Disorders

Living with a personality disorder, you may struggle to build and maintain relationships with others. Relating to and communicating with those closest to you, can be confusing and even frightening. You may have experienced a number of relationship breakdowns and be unsure why. You may have found yourself in relationships that have felt risky and insecure, or that have even been harmful for you.

Managing and understanding your moods and emotions in response to these relationships can also be a real struggle. You may experience extremes of hurt, anger or fear in response to other people’s behaviours, leaving you feeling abandoned and intensely alone. You may equally feel numb towards, or confused by, other people’s emotional reactions, and surprised when your relationships with them suffer or break down.

Being told you have a personality disorder can feel alienating and unhelpful, especially when you’re trying to manage things on your own. You may disagree with this diagnosis or not understand fully what it means. With the right support, being diagnosed with a personality disorder can help you to manage your feelings, negotiate relationships more easily, and feel more secure in yourself.

Our expert team of psychotherapists will support you in gaining a deeper understanding of your personality structure, and how this affects your behaviours, relationships and the way you manage emotions. Therapy may include:

• Understanding core issues that contributed to the development of your personality disorder such as past traumas, abandonment issues, emotional deprivation etc.
• Creating a safe and understanding therapeutic environment and a relationship that models healthy attachment styles
• Working on decreasing destructive behaviours and replace them with more effective behaviours
• Teaching you new skills to improve how you communicate in relationships
• Supporting you in increasing your tolerance to deal with distress
• Building more emotional agility so you can express your feelings, and manage the feelings of others better
• Developing confidence to deal with challenging situations assertively

An assessment with our Consultant Psychiatrist can provide you with a medical diagnosis of your mental health, and a treatment plan moving forwards that may combine medication to deal with depression, anxiety or psychosis, with ongoing psychotherapy.

Lifestyle and nutritional support can provide you with a balanced diet, help you manage stress and sleep patterns, and balance your physiology, which can reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.