Practical Strategies for Responding to Personality Disorders
Personality Disorders constitute one of the most fascinating areas in mental health. It is also one of the most challenging one to treat and manage. The clients whose problems meet the DSM-5® criteria for personality disorder may require more time in therapy, more energy and involvement on your part. Some experience a greater number of life crises, and create more upset with their family, work, and social systems than virtually any other diagnostic group. Often being “sent” for therapy rather than choosing therapy, their motivation for change may be limited and their personality disorder is likely co-morbid with other exacerbating disorders.
Far too often such clients are managed by under resourced services without the support or guidance of the mental health system. This situation results in poor case management, inadequate resolutions and repeated crises causing cost blowouts and stretching resources even more.
Join us in this online recording created by TATRA Training in order to foster good understanding of the specific challenges associated with caring for individuals with personality disorders. This is a comprehensive and fun course, heavily illustrated with case studies, learning activities, and movie illustrations. The content has been extended, and you will receive 12 CPE learning hours for participating in this course. Presented by the trainer with 21 years teaching experience and 27 experience in mental health who facilitated this course multiple times nationally to the multiple audiences from various backgrounds.
The content will include definitions, descriptions of all personality disorders, their types, and, most importantly, strategies for managing and treating them. You will learn how to engage your clients which is a difficult task in itself because many people with personality disorders do not see the reason for treatment and they usually defer responsibility to others, as part of the disorder. You will find that this course will help you to understand this fascinating client population and that your confidence in caring for them will significantly increase.
This workshop will foster an understanding of the specific challenges associated with caring for individuals with personality disorders. Practical and powerful methods for effectively managing and treating clients with BPD will be presented. It is an interactive and fun workshop. Case studies, learning tasks and movie illustrations will be used to make this not only a valuable learning experience but also an enjoyable one.
Learning Objectives:
- Develop good understanding of the specific challenges associated with caring for individuals with personality disorders.
- Learn practical methods for effectively managing and treating clients with Personality Disorders.
- Learn and practice powerful techniques that will assist in lessening the Borderline PD disorder.
- Understand a range of various behaviours in each personality disorder type and adapt strategies accordingly.
- Effectively assess specific needs for each personality disorder and adapt treatment; understand the limitations.
- Understand personality disorders in both the clinical context and in the workplace.
- Learn strategies for managing personality disorders in various settings.
- Outline treatment modalities that should be utilised.
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: 12 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 12
- Topics 0
- Duration 12 hours
- Quizzes 1
- Language English