Telepsychiatric transference-focused psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder: A case report and literature review

Abstract

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by extreme sensitivity to perceived interpersonal conflicts, an unstable sense of self, intense and volatile emotions, impulsive behavior, and recurrent suicidality. This report presents a woman in her early 20s diagnosed with BPD who underwent treatment with transference-focused psychotherapy (TFP) using a videoconference platform. There is no manualized strategy to incorporate videoconferencing with TFP, so we adapted the therapeutic contract to telepsychiatry standards and discussed difficulties during the psychotherapeutic process. This case study can also be used to develop more detailed and structured studies on TFP using a telepsychiatric framework.

Keywords

• Telepsychiatry. Transference-focused psychotherapy. Borderline personality disorder. E-therapy. Therapeutic contract.