Personality disorders are often described in terms of observable behavior, rage, manipulation,
withdrawal, impulsivity, but these surface behaviors are driven by powerful emotional
themes beneath the surface. This first session explores the core content that fuels personality
pathology, helping clinicians move beyond symptom management to deeper, more targeted
interventions.

In this session, we’ll focus on identifying and working with emotional drivers such as shame,
fear of abandonment, chronic feelings of inadequacy, and internalized beliefs of
unworthiness. These emotional experiences are often rooted in early relational trauma and
can remain unspoken or poorly articulated by clients. When left unexamined, they influence
behavior in rigid, repetitive, and often self-defeating ways.

This session will present a framework for understanding how these emotional cores give rise
to maladaptive patterns like emotional lability, self-sabotage, perfectionism, and
interpersonal instability. Through clinical examples and case illustrations, attendees will
learn how to recognize signs of core emotional distress, even when masked by defensiveness
or grandiosity, and how to begin gently naming and addressing these themes in session.

The session will also introduce strategies to help clients begin identifying, tolerating, and
integrating these painful emotional states into a more coherent narrative of self. By targeting
the emotional core, clinicians can support more meaningful, lasting change and avoid
reinforcing surface-level coping strategies that often fail in the long run.

This foundational session sets the tone for the rest of the series, grounding treatment in
compassion, curiosity, and a deep respect for the internal world of the client.

What You’ll Learn:

1. Identify Core Emotional Drivers:
   Recognize and articulate the underlying emotional themes—such as shame, fear of abandonment, chronic inadequacy, and internalized unworthiness—that drive maladaptive behaviors in personality disorders.
2. Assess Behavioral Manifestations of Emotional Distress:
   Develop the ability to detect and interpret how surface behaviors (e.g., rage, manipulation, withdrawal, impulsivity) are linked to deeper, often unspoken emotional experiences rooted in early relational trauma.
3. Apply a Framework for Clinical Intervention:
   Utilize a structured approach to connect core emotional content with maladaptive patterns like emotional lability, self-sabotage, perfectionism, and interpersonal instability, moving beyond symptom management to targeted, transformative interventions.
4. Facilitate Emotional Awareness and Integration:
   Implement strategies to help clients identify, tolerate, and integrate painful emotional states into a coherent self-narrative, fostering greater emotional resilience and supporting meaningful, lasting change in treatment.

Agenda:

Identify the emotional themes that drive maladaptive behavior (e.g., shame, abandonment, inadequacy).

10 min – Opening & Concept Overview
Define core content, its developmental origins (e.g., attachment wounds), and relevance in treatment.

15 min – Case Example Presentation
Introduce a client vignette that illustrates intense core content (e.g., chronic emptiness or rejection sensitivity).

30 min – Group Discussion
Explore:
What is this client protecting or afraid of?
What does the behavior say about identity or unmet needs?

20 min – Strategies for Engagement

Techniques to access, reflect, and validate core emotional material.

15 min – Application
Participants apply framework to a current client and share observations.