Personality disorders

A personality-disorder diagnosis can land in very different ways — as a relief that finally names a lifetime of struggle, or as a label that feels like a verdict on who you are. Whichever it was for you, the reality underneath is usually the same: patterns of feeling, relating and coping that formed early, for good reasons, and that now cause real pain — emotions that overwhelm, relationships that swing between too close and too far, an unstable sense of who you are, or defences that keep everyone at a distance.

How therapy helps

These patterns were learned in relationships, and they change in one. Longer-term, relational psychotherapy — drawing on psychoanalytic understanding and the skills-based clarity of CBT and DBT-informed work — offers a consistent, boundaried relationship in which the old patterns can show themselves, be understood rather than punished, and gradually be revised. Change here is real and well-documented; it is the work of months and years rather than weeks, and it is worth it.

What we'd work on

Regulating emotions that currently overwhelm; understanding the early logic of your patterns; building a steadier sense of self; and developing relationships — including the one with your therapist — that don't repeat the old story.

Diagnosis itself, where wanted, sits with a psychiatrist; therapy is where the patterns are worked with. Many people do this work with or without a formal label.