Understanding Chronic Trauma: Working with Borderline Clients

Presented by: Michael Lillie LMFT, MHP

When: Friday, May 16th, 2025 | 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM, Pacific Time

Where: Live on Zoom. You will receive your Zoom link/invitation the week of the workshop.

Continuing Education Credit Hours: 3 CEs | $95.00

Therapy clients who present with chronic traumatization offer unique challenges. They may enter therapy having been given multiple diagnoses and a history of treatment failure. Depending on how these individuals present, they may receive diagnoses of Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, along with many other diagnoses. Some individuals have been in therapy for many years—some for decades–without achieving symptom relief and stabilization. 

This scenario can be frustrating for both the client and the therapist, leading to shame for clients and burnout for the therapist. Why some clients get positive outcomes with therapy, while others show little sign of healing from their wounds, can be rooted in chronic trauma and how the personality is formed and organized around traumatic events.

Chronically traumatized individuals may have experienced repeated developmental, relational, and acute types of disturbing and/or traumatic experiences. This type of client presentation will often have serious attachment injuries/ruptures, along with higher levels and multiple types of dissociation, making traditional therapy modalities more difficult or impossible to administer. 

Objectives:

• Understand the symptoms and behaviors of clients with borderline presentations. 
• Understand diagnostic complexities and gender biases for clients who present as borderline.
• Describe how a disorganized attachment style sets the frame for relationship with self and others creating stormy and chaotic relationships.
• Discover how secondary dissociation leads to a complex subsystem of defenses that may be impervious to traditional therapy.
• Learn how to recognize transference and countertransference issues within the client-therapist relationship.
• Identify the dangers, boundary issues, and ethical dilemmas that may arise when working with borderline clients.