Clients with personality disorders often engage in confusing, contradictory, or even self-
defeating behaviors that can be misinterpreted as manipulative or resistant. In reality, many
of these behaviors are defensive strategies, protective mechanisms developed early in life to manage overwhelming emotional pain and preserve a sense of self. This session focuses on
identifying and understanding these defenses as essential to survival, not signs of pathology.

We’ll explore common defenses seen across personality disorders, including splitting,
projection, denial, idealization and devaluation, dissociation, and reactive anger. These
defenses often serve to manage painful emotions such as shame, fear of abandonment, or
perceived threat to identity. While they may appear rigid or maladaptive, they represent a
client’s best attempt to navigate emotional experiences that feel unmanageable or dangerous.

Through clinical examples and discussion, participants will learn how to recognize when a
client is using a defense, how to avoid reinforcing it, and how to gently explore the
underlying emotional vulnerability it protects. We’ll also examine how certain defenses are
more characteristic of specific personality structures, for example, narcissistic defensiveness
versus borderline splitting, and how this shapes the therapeutic relationship.

Rather than trying to dismantle defenses prematurely, this session emphasizes a stance of
clinical empathy and timing, knowing when to validate, when to interpret, and when to wait.
By understanding defenses as adaptive, clinicians can reduce reactivity, build trust, and help
clients gradually develop more flexible and authentic ways of relating to themselves and
others.

What You’ll Learn:

1. Identify Common Defense Mechanisms:
   Recognize and describe frequent defenses in personality disorders, such as splitting, projection, denial, idealization/devaluation, dissociation, and reactive anger, and understand their role in managing overwhelming emotions
2. Understand the Protective Function of Defenses:
   Develop insight into how defensive behaviors serve as adaptive strategies to shield clients from emotional pain, shame, abandonment fears, and threats to identity, rather than viewing them as mere pathology or resistance.
3. Differentiate Defenses Across Personality Structures:
   Learn to distinguish how specific defenses manifest in different personality disorder presentations (e.g., narcissistic defensiveness vs. borderline splitting), and how these influence the therapeutic relationship.
4. Respond Empathetically and Strategically to Defenses:
   Apply clinical strategies to recognize when defenses are active, avoid reinforcing them, and gently explore the underlying vulnerabilities they protect—balancing validation, interpretation, and timing to foster trust and support gradual change.
   
5. Agenda:

Identify common defense mechanisms in PDs and understand their protective function.

10 min – Overview of Primary Defenses
Splitting, projection, dissociation, idealization, devaluation, denial

15 min – Clinical Vignette
Highlight a session where a client becomes dysregulated and uses defense

30 min – Discussion
What triggered the defense?
How did the therapist respond?
What was effective or ineffective?

20 min – Working with Defenses
Gentle confrontation, reflective listening, modeling integration

15 min – Practice & Peer Consult
Share a challenging defense from a current case and workshop a response.