Borderline Personality Disorder: Management, Treatment and Communication Strategies
- The core characteristics of Borderline Personality Disorder.
- Specific treatment and management strategies.
- Etiology and neuroscience in Borderline PD.
- Specific communication approaches to engage clients and assist in therapeutic progress.
- Comprehensive and integrative treatment techniques you can use in any setting, whether it is an organisation or a counselling room.
Clients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) can present you with many challenges, and focusing on one treatment modality may not provide your clients with the therapeutic results they desperately need. Enrol in this comprehensive and practice-focused course and learn how to use a range of integrative and applied treatment strategies for treating borderline disorders. Combining aspects of DBT, CBT, Schema therapies and neurobiological stabilisation, you will develop specific interventions that are effective and necessary throughout your involvement with the client. Learn how to rapidly recognise diagnostic aspects of BPD, see the differences between BPD and other personality disorders, recognise BPD sub-types and respond to chronic suicidality.
You will learn how to recognise the common factors that lead to affective instability, and techniques to effectively validate clients, provide limit setting and apply strategies to achieve emotional control. You will participate in a multitude of interactive exercises that will leave you confident and will facilitate therapeutic progress.
By blending the most effective treatment techniques available for BPD into clear protocols, this course will show you how to maximise your chances for helping your clients achieve lasting change in the course of brief involvement. You will learn how to quickly progress by using the SET communication strategy repeatedly, how to validate at six levels, how to respond to the subconscious schemas rather than use a “knee-jerk” response to the challenging patterns, and finally, you will learn how to manage chronic suicidality.
Don’t miss this valuable workshop – overcome treatment challenges and get unstuck with your clients with Borderline Personality Disorder today.
See what people say:
- “I feel I gained a very clear and accurate understanding of BPD and the challenges that underpin responses to stress and risks. Really enjoyed the day! Most informative, great range of useful strategies.” (Access worker)
- “An excellent workshop! I will use the frame more. Loved Hanna’s lovely style and making things plain.” (Therapist)
- “Excellent! I will now provide stricter structure for my clients and will have better understanding of BPD needs” (Psychologist)
- “Very insightful! (Social worker in MH Community Services)
Learning Objectives:
- Refine skills for rapid assessment.
- Identify additional BPD traits that have not been captured in DSM-5® diagnostic criteria.
- Understand differential diagnosis and co-morbidity: Bipolar disorder, ADHD, substance abuse, Complex and chronic PTSD and other personality disorders.
- Implement effective and empirically validated strategies for the treatment and management of BPD.
- Explore common treatment errors and pitfalls.
- Understand “splitting”.
- Learn to utilise the SET communication strategy effectively.
- Learn 6 levels of validation.
- Respond to subconscious beliefs that drive problematic behaviours.
- Become confident when working with Schemas
- Manage counter-transference issues that invariably arise during your involvement with the BPD client.
- Summarise a number of adjunctive management strategies you can utilise if you are not a therapist but you want to assist in improving the BPD individuals’ quality of life.
- Learn how to manage chronic suicidality.
- Understand how BPD can be lessened if prevention is implemented early.
- Implement emotional and behavioural regulation strategies regardless whether you operate from a therapy room or an organisation.
CPD Information For Mental Health Professionals
Enjoy complete flexibility with 100% self-paced learning you can access anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Pay once for lifetime access.
Course Duration: 6 learning hours
Certificate and CPD hours: On completion you’ll receive a Certificate of Completion to support your CPD records.
Assessment: Complete a short quiz at the end (80% pass mark), which you can resit as many times as needed.
Lifetime Access: Your access to the course does not expire, so you can revisit key concepts anytime you want a refresher for practice.
CPD Eligibility: This program may be suitable for CPD for professionals such as:
- Psychologists
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- Social Workers
- Community Workers
- Mental Health Nurses
- General Practitioners (GPs)
- Occupational Therapists
CPD requirements vary between professional bodies, so please check with your association or credentialing body to confirm you can claim CPD hours/OPD points for this program and what evidence they require.
Course Content
Meet Your Instructor
Frontline mental health professionals struggling with complex cases - from suicidal clients to challenging personality disorders - need more than theoretical knowledge to make real-world impact. Hanna Nowicki has spent over 30 years bridging the gap between academic concepts and practical application, becoming one of Australia's leading mental health trainers and helping over 20,000 professionals develop confidence with their most difficult cases.
As Founder of TATRA, Nowicki brings a unique combination of legal expertise, psychology training, and extensive frontline experience to her teaching. Her remarkable career journey - from District Court Judge in Poland dealing with family law to Senior Practitioner in South Australia's Statewide Suicide Intervention Program - gives her unparalleled insight into both systemic and individual approaches to mental health crisis intervention. Her multilingual abilities and multicultural practice experience add crucial cultural competency to her training programs.
Nowicki's expertise spans suicide risk assessment, personality disorders, self-injury, depression, anxiety disorders, client engagement techniques, workplace debriefing, and multicultural mental health practice. Her approach focuses on practical "know-how" rather than abstract theory, showing professionals exactly what to do and say in challenging situations. She specialises in training professionals who work with high-risk populations, including those in child protection, correctional services, and community mental health settings.
What sets her training apart is real-world credibility. Nowicki doesn't just teach from textbooks - she draws from decades of direct practice in suicide prevention, child protection, and mental health services. Her work with government organisations like Centrelink, Correctional Services, and Housing SA demonstrates her ability to translate clinical knowledge into practical strategies that work in diverse professional settings.
For your practice, expect to gain specific techniques for engaging resistant clients, practical tools for suicide risk assessment, and frameworks for working effectively with personality disorders. Her interactive, high-energy teaching style particularly benefits practitioners who need confidence-building alongside skill development.
Quick Win: Nowicki's "engagement hierarchy" technique helps professionals quickly establish rapport with defensive or hostile clients by matching their communication approach to the client's presenting style - often creating breakthrough connections in the first encounter.
Qualifications
- LLM, Law, University of Adam Mickiewicz, Poznan, Poland, 1979–1983
- Postgraduate studies: Social Psychology, Psychology of Crime, Pathological Psychology, Criminology, University of Adam Mickiewicz, Poland, 1984–1985
- BA, Psychology, Flinders University, Australia
- Postgraduate Degree, Social Administration, Flinders University, Adelaide, 1992–1994
- Certificate IV in Training & Workplace Assessment
- Accredited De-briefer and Workplace Trainer
- Multilingual (speaks four languages)
Career & Leadership
- Founder, TATRA Corporate and Allied Health Training Services
- Professional Trainer & Speaker, Mental Health Education, Australia-wide, 1996–present
- State Manager, SA Mental Health Training Centre, NSW Institute of Psychiatry, 2005–2008
- Senior Practitioner, Statewide Suicide Intervention Program, South Australia, 1996–2005
Professional Background
- District Court Judge (Family Law), Poland, 1985–1989
- Legal Practitioner, Poland, early 1980s
- Social Worker, South Australian Mental Health Services, Adelaide, 1993–1996
- Child Protection Worker
- University Lecturer, Social Policy
Specialised Expertise
- Suicide risk assessment and intervention
- Personality disorders diagnosis and management
- Self-injury and self-harming behavior
- Depression and anxiety disorders
- Client engagement techniques for difficult cases
- Workplace debriefing and crisis response
- Multicultural mental health practice
Ready to transform your confidence with challenging mental health cases? Discover how Hanna Nowicki's practice-based approach can give you the real-world skills and cultural competency needed to make a genuine difference with your most difficult clients.
Feedback & Reviews
This course includes:
- Lessons 8
- Topics 0
- Duration 6 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English