Purpose of the Conference

The complex challenges associated with BPD will be addressed in order to inform mental health professionals, families and consumers of the most current diagnostic and treatment options available, and other issues of current interest to those affected by this disorder.

Audience

Statement of Need

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Diagnosis and treatment interventions of borderline personality disorder should begin as soon as possible

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Borderline Personality disorder (BPD) is a severe and generally chronic disorder and people who suffer from it are underserved.

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Friends and families are often bewildered and do not know how to help.

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Treatment programs for those with BPD need to be more readily available.

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Families need access to programs such as those already developed for several other mental illnesses.

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BPD presents patients, their families, clinicians, and researchers with multiple challenges.

The May 2, 2008 Borderline Personality disorder, Trauma, and Resiliency has been approved for 6.25 Continuing Education Credit Hours by the National Association of Social Workers, CT and meets the continuing education criteria for CT Social Work Licensure renewal.

To receive a CE certificate at the end of the conference, license number and request for CE's should be included in the registration information, or at time of sign-in / sign-out at the conference.

Conference focus

Overview of BPD diagnosis and theory

Associations of BPD with trauma and PTSD

Effects of prolonged and repeated trauma (Complex PTSD)

Consumer and family perspectives

Family support options

BPD recovery and vocational preparation

Fostering resiliency in trauma survivors

Dialectical Behavior Therapy applied to complex trauma

Moderator for the day: Seth R. Axelrod, PhD

Registration and Coffee

8:30-9:15 

Welcome    

Opening Remarks                                                       

Borderline Personality Disorder and Trauma

9:15-10:30

BPD and Complex PTSD

10:45-11:30

Consumer and Family Perspectives:

Family Matters  

Thinking and Rethinking BPD

The Connections Place                                              

Perry D. Hoffman, PhD 

Mindy Cass

Amanda Wang

Dale Terilli                   

Lunch on your own

(Information on area eateries will be available on-site)

Fostering Resiliency

DBT for Complex Trauma-Related Problems

Moderator:

Ellen Nasper, PhD

Panelists:

Judith L. Herman, MD

Shireen Rivzi, PhD

Steven M. Southwick, MD

Kiera Van Gelder, MFA

Closing Remarks and Adjourn

PRESENTATION OBJECTIVES

Borderline Personality Disorder and Trauma

Seth R. Axelrod, PhD

1)  Familiarize attendees with diagnostic criteria and leading models of BPD

2) Review relationships of BPD to trauma and PTSD

3) Discuss controversies in conceptualizing BPD as a trauma-related disorder

4) Review longitudinal course of BPD

BPD and Complex PTSD                                          

Judith L. Herman, MD

1)    Introduce the concept of complex PTSD, and review the conditions of prolonged and repeated trauma under which it develops.  

2)    Present the descriptive overlap with BPD, and review the evidence highlighting the specificity of the association between childhood trauma and BPD.  

3)    Discuss implications for the treatment

Consumer and Family Perspectives and Family Connections

Perry D. Hoffman, PhD, and Mindy Cass

1)   Why families need help

2)   Research and A Family Program: Family Connections

Thinking and Rethinking BPD

Amanda Wang

      1)   To understand the impact of BPD as the disorder left untreated impedes the course of a person’s life

The Connections Place: A Portal for Hope

Dale Terilli

1)   Present a job preparedness program specifically designed for people who have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder to overcome barriers which have interrupted their vocational journey

Beyond Remission: Mapping BPD Recovery 

Kiera Van Gelder, MFA

1)   Introduce a developmental model of BPD recovery

2)   Explore obstacles to BPD recovery with focus on identity development and relationships

3)   Define dialectics of BPD recovery and resiliency

Applications of Dialectical Behavior Therapy To Trauma-Related Problems

Shireen L. Rizvi, Ph.D.

1)   Demonstrate the applicability of DBT principles to case formulation and treatment planning for individuals with trauma-related problems

2)   How to conceptualize trauma-related problems according to the biosocial theory, stages of treatment, and behavioral theory in DBT

3)   How to apply key DBT strategies (validation, problem-solving, dialectical strategies) to trauma-related problems

Fostering Resiliency                                               

Steven M. Southwick, MD

1)    Discuss definitions of resiliency from trauma illustrated with case examples

2)    Present biological, psychological, and social factors that are implicated in the expression of trauma resiliency

3)    Explore lessons from the resiliency literature as they might be applied to fostering resiliency in individuals with BPD, their families, and their mental health providers

Panel Discussion: BPD, Complex PTSD, and Resiliency

Moderator: Ellen Nasper, PhD

      1)    Compare and contrast Complex PTSD with Borderline Personality Disorder

2)    Translate models of resiliency and treatment to case material

3)    Facilitate discussion between experts and conference attendees

Seth R. Axelrod, PhD

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Yale University School of Medicine

IOP DBT/DBT –SUD Team Leader

Yale-New Haven Hospital

Clinical Director

Parent Support Services

Connecticut Mental Health Center

Perry D. Hoffman, PhD

President

National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder

Jennifer Fisher, MA

Administrative Manager

Borderline Personality Disorder Resource Center

David Klemanski, PsyD

Lecturer, Department of Psychology

Associate Director

Yale Anxiety and Mood Services

Department of Psychology

Yale University

Lisa Maccarelli, PhD

Department of Psychiatry

Yale University School of Medicine

Peggilee Wupperman

Department of Psychiatry

Yale University School of Medicine

CONFERENCE REGISTRARS

Patricia Woodward, MAT

Secretary

National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder

Jacquelyn N. Smith, LMSW

Continuing Day Treatment Program

Payne Whitney Clinic

New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Payne Whitney-Manhattan

FACULTY PRESENTERS

Seth R. Axelrod, PhD

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Yale University School of Medicine

IOP DBT/DBT –SUD Team Leader

Yale-New Haven Hospital

Clinical Director

Parent Support Services

Connecticut Mental Health Center

Judith L. Herman, MD

Clinical Professor of Psychiatry

Harvard Medical School

Director of Training

Victims of Violence Program

Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge, MA

Perry D. Hoffman, PhD

President

National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder

Ellen Nasper, PhD

Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry

Yale University School of Medicine

Clinical Director

The Greater Bridgeport Mental Health Center

Shireen L. Rizvi, PhD

Assistant Professor of Psychology

New School for Social Research

New York City

Steven M. Southwick, MD

Professor of Psychiatry

Yale Medical School and Yale Child Study Center

Deputy Director of the Clinical Neuroscience Division

National Center for PTSD

Westhaven VAMC

Kiera Van Gelder, MFA

Writer, artist, educator

Executive Director and Founder

Middle Path

Amanda Wang

BPD/SI Support Group of NY

BIOS

CONFERENCE FACULTY

Seth R. Axelrod, PhD is an assistant professor of the Yale University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, team leader of the DBT and DBT for Substance Use Disorders (DBT-SUD) at the Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital Intensive Outpatient Program, and the Clinical Director of Parent Support Services, a newly developed clinical research center and satellite of Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC) that serves maltreated children and their families involved in the DCF system.  He received his PhD from the University of Kentucky, completed internship training focusing on DBT with the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and obtained postdoctoral training in personality disorders research at the Yale University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry.  Dr. Axelrod enjoys teaching and supervising mental health professionals of various disciplines and providing training and consultation to schools and other mental health agencies.  He is the founder of the Connecticut DBT Network, an organization that supports the development and practice of DBT and that facilitates referrals to Connecticut DBT programs.  Dr. Axelrod is actively involved in research, and has published and presented his work in the areas of DBT, personality disorders, and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Perry D. Hoffman, PhD is the President and a co-founder of the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder (NEA-BPD). She has several grants from the National Institute of Mental Health with a focus on families who have a relative with borderline personality disorder.  Dr. Hoffman is co-designer of the 12-week psycho-education course for families, Family Connections, which is available in many locations both in the United States as well as other countries. She is a co editor, with John G. Gunderson, MD, of the book Understanding and Treating Borderline Personality Disorder: A Guide for Professionals and Family Member and co editor of Borderline Personality Disorder: Meeting the Challenges to Successful Treatment currently in press.    Dr. Hoffman, who is intensively trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), has been the director of several treatment programs in the New York area and now is in private practice in New York City and Westchester County, NY.      

Judith Lewis Herman M.D. is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of Training at the Victims of Violence Program at The Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge, MA.  Dr. Herman received her medical degree at Harvard Medical School and her training in general and community psychiatry at Boston University Medical Center.  She is the author of two award-winning books:  Father-Daughter Incest (Harvard University Press, 1981), and Trauma and Recovery (Basic Books, 1992).   She has lectured widely on the subject of sexual and domestic violence.  She is the recipient of the 1996 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and the 2000 Woman in Science Award from the American Medical Women's Association.  In 2007 she was named a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Ellen Nasper, PhD is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Yale School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry where she supervises trainees and teaches courses on Dialectical Behavior Therapy and The Psychosocial Consequences of Attachment Trauma.  She is the Director of Community Outpatient Services at the Central Avenue site of Greater Bridgeport Community Mental Health Center, directs the Dialectical Behavior Therapy program for the Southwest Community Mental Health System, and provides consultation for the Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services on developmental trauma related issues. She coauthored The Return from Madness  (Jason Aronson, New Jersey, 1996) with Kathleen Deegan, M.D., which explored the impact of the new antipsychotic medications on persons recovering from severe and persistent psychotic disorders. 

Shireen Rizvi, Ph.D. received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Washington. She studied borderline personality disorder and DBT for more than five years under the mentorship of Dr. Linehan and worked as a research therapist in Dr. Linehan’s research lab, providing individual psychotherapy and skills training. Her dissertation research focused on the use of the DBT skill of “opposite action” to treat shame. She completed her pre-doctoral clinical internship at the Boston Consortium in Clinical Psychology and an NIMH postdoctoral fellowship at the National Center for PTSD at the Boston VA Healthcare System. Dr. Rizvi is currently Assistant Professor of Psychology at the New School for Social Research in New York City. Dr. Rizvi has written and presented numerous theoretical and research papers on BPD, DBT, and trauma. Her areas of research and clinical expertise include shame, treatment development, trauma, and assessment and treatment of suicidal behaviors.

Steven M. Southwick, MD is Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale Medical School and at the Yale Child Study Center, Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and Deputy Director of the Clinical Neurosciences Division of the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. He is a recognized expert on the psychological and neurobiological effects of extreme psychological trauma. Dr. Southwick has served on the Board of Directors of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Traumatic Stress. He has published extensively in the scientific literature on the phenomenology and neurobiology of PTSD, the longitudinal course of trauma-related psychological symptoms, memory for traumatic events, treatment of PTSD and on neurobiological and psychological factors associated with resilience to stress. He has worked with a wide range of stress sensitive and stress resilient individuals including combat veterans with PTSD, civilian children and adults with PTSD and very high functioning stress-resilient prisoners of war and active Special Forces soldiers. Dr. Southwick has been awarded numerous research grants and has served on a number of federal grant review committees. He has also won several awards for excellence in teaching and clinical work.

Dale Terilli is Program Director at The Connections Place, a job preparedness program in Manhattan for people with BPD who are returning to the world of work.  For more than three decades, she worked at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in the Therapeutic Activity Department. She was trained in DBT in 1996 and was the Admission Coordinator and Treatment Coordinator in The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Day Program. Her work in DBT also includes a Co-leader in The DBT Family Group, coordinating the College Outpatient program for BPD students, providing seminars to introduce professionals to DBT, lectures to the community and other professionals, consulting to WJCS for monthly DBT for the past four years. She was also the Clinical Coordinator at the Mount Sinai Medical Center DBT Outpatient Program. Ms. Terilli and Beth Elliott, PhD, The Connections Place Director, have joined their skills in the planning and implementation of the TCP.

Kiera Van Gelder, MFA is a writer, artist and educator. She is the founder and director of Middle Path, Inc. a borderline personality disorder advocacy and education organization. An international speaker and presenter, Ms. Van Gelder is featured in the documentary "Back from the Edge: Living with and Recovering from Borderline Personality Disorder." She is on the board of directors of the New England Personality Disorder Association and is the Massachusetts Consumer Council Representative for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Ms. Van Gelder has pioneered a peer-facilitated psychoeducation curriculum for BPD and is currently collaborating with clinical communities to train staff and peer specialists on how to support all those affected by the disorder.

Amanda Wang, organizer of a peer-led support group for BPD/SI in New York City, is currently working on RethinkBPD, a venture designed to define new solutions for this community. Ms. Wang's associate degree from Pratt Institute in Digital Design and Interactive Media has stood her in good stead to create RethinkBPD.org, a website aimed to draw attention to the human side of the disorder. Her own experiences speak to the need to understand, educate, and provide access to proper treatment.

BIOS

CONFERENCE COORDINATORS

Jennifer Fisher, MA is the Administrative Manager for the Borderline Personality Disorder Resource Center (BPDRC) at NY Presbyterian Hospital’s Westchester Division, a member of the NYPH System and Weill Medical College of Cornell University.  Prior to joining BPDRC, Ms. Fisher managed education for the department of OB/Gyn at The Sloane Hospital for Women at Columbia University Medical Center. While there, she coordinated and oversaw a full restructuring of their educational programs.  Ms. Fisher also previously held various operations and human resources positions with for-profit healthcare organizations within Westchester County. Previous to entering healthcare administration, Ms. Fisher led treatment teams for Early Intervention Applied Behavior Analysis programs, working 1:1 with children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders in New York and Rhode Island. Ms. Fisher is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and is on the Advisory Board of the local chapter, Healthcare Leaders of New York (HLNY). Most recently, she served as Secretary of the Executive Board and Chair of HLNY’s Community Relations and Career Services committees. Ms. Fisher graduated with a BA degree in Psychology from Roger Williams University and an MA degree in Educational Psychology from Rhode Island College.

David H. Klemanski, Psy.D. is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Yale University and Associate Director of Yale Anxiety and Mood Services. He received his Doctor of Psychology degree from University of Hartford and completed his predoctoral fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital and his postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychology at Yale University.  Dr. Klemanski’s research interests have broadly focused on delineating psychopathological components of anxiety relevant to classification of specific anxiety disorders and identification of common comorbid conditions.  More recently, his research has centered on individual differences in emotion regulation strategies and treatment outcome among generalized anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and selected personality disorders (including borderline personality disorder). By delineating differential regulatory processes associated with various emotional experiences, his research aims to contribute to clarification of the diagnostic overlap among these disorders.

Lisa Maccarelli, Ph.D. is a Clinical Psychologist and an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Yale University School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry with extensive experience in the treatment, consultation, and supervision of clients diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and/or substance use disorders using Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Dr. Jeffrey Young's Schema Therapy. Her interests include psychotherapy outcome research for personality disorders, substance abuse, and depression, and she currently serves as the Project Director for a treatment outcome study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). In addition, Dr. Maccarelli provides psychotherapy supervision to psychology fellows and staff at community mental health centers in the New Haven area, and she conducts Dialectical Behavior Therapy for substance abuse clients through the APT Foundation.

Jacquelyn N. Smith, LMSW, came to NYC in 2003 to attend Columbia University School of Social Work.  During her second-year year internship at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center she was exposed to and began practicing DBT with patients struggling with dysfunction related to Borderline Personality Disorder.  She completed her internship under the auspices of Andre Ivanoff, Ph.D., professor at CUSSW and International Trainer and Consultant for Behavioral Tech, LLC, the agency overseeing the implementation of DBT. From this internship, she was Intensively Trained in DBT at the Bronx VA in 2005.  After briefly working at F.E.G.S. upon graduation from CUSSW, she secured her current position at NYPH/Payne Whitney day program to perform individual and group psychotherapy, and half-time in the DBT track.  “DBT is my passion, “she says, “and working to create a life worth living for those struggling with dysfunction resulting from BPD. I am always seeking to learn more, expand my knowledge base, and become involved to bring hope to those seeking a better life in spite of BPD. I look forward to working with NEA-BPD in my ongoing quest to spread the word about the support available for individuals with BPD and their loved ones.”

Peggilee Wupperman, PhD, is the Director of the Anger and Substance Program for Women (ASP-W) at Yale University School of Medicine. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of North Texas, completed an internship focused on borderline personality disorder (BPD) at Yale School of Medicine, and obtained additional training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy through a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington. Dr. Wupperman has extensive experience in research and treatment of individuals with BPD features and harmful impulsivity. She is currently in the process of developing, implementing and evaluating a mindfulness-based dialectal treatment for women who engage in substance abuse and physical aggression. She is also working to further her previous research that suggests that mindfulness deficits predict BPD features and problems with harmful impulsivity, emotion dysregulation, and interpersonal dysfunction. In addition, Dr. Wupperman provides therapy for clients with BPD features and substance abuse, and she serves as an off-site supervisor to graduate clinicians treating clients with BPD at the University of Washington. 

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