Personality Disorders
Therapy for Personality Disorders
Get the mental health treatment you deserve in person or from the comfort of your own home.
Mental health treatment should begin where you are and with your needs. We believe that mental health starts with your thoughts, but it doesn’t end there. Mental health should include how you feel, how your body feels, and everything that’s happening around you. That’s why we take a completely holistic approach.
That’s why we focus on what’s going on in your life through tailored, 1:1 individual therapy that you can do right from the comfort of your own home or in person. It’s designed for you, by you.
You don’t have to figure out all the answers by yourself. You can and should have the life you want.
Think you may have a personality disorder?
Take a free assessment about your mental health to see if a personality disorder is impacting your life.
Personality disorders are defined by a set of behaviors, thoughts, or beliefs that are causing problems in your life. 1
Personality disorders are a complicated set of thoughts, behaviors, and beliefs that seriously impact our ability to have the life that we wish to lead. Many times, people do not realize that they are experiencing a personality disorder because their thoughts and behaviors come so naturally to them. Unlike some other mental health issues, others seem to notice the concerns more frequently than the person experiencing them.
Regardless of whether you are fully aware of them or if others have brought it to your attention, therapy can help to identify those patterns and begin to reform the tapestry of how you experience life for more meaningful relationships with others and yourself.
Mental Health Treatment on Your Terms
Manage Your Symptoms
Personality disorders are defined by certain clusters of symptoms that have an influence on many areas of your life: work or school, family, friends, and yourself. Learn how to identify the patterns and begin to manage them more effectively.
Explore Your Past
Personality disorders often begin in adolescence or early adulthood and may be a result of certain environmental factors in your major relationships. Look at your past through a new lens and see how it has helped to shape you and what you can do about it.
Regain Your Control
Often, our thoughts and behaviors focus on a need to control our environment and our relationships in order to meet our needs. Unfortunately, many of the efforts and tactics that we use have a tendency to cause more problems than it resolves. Find out how to truly have control over your life.
Common Sources for Personality Disorders
There is no exact cause of personality disorders, however, many believe that it is a combination of your genes and environment that plays a role in it’s development. Other factors can increase the risk of the development of a personality disorder.
These risk factors include a family history of personality disorders or other mental health issues; abusive, unstable, or chaotic family life during childhood; being diagnosed with a childhood conduct disorder; and variations in brain chemistry and structure.
Whatever the case, personality disorders can be managed that can allow you to have healthier relationships with others and yourself and improve other areas of your life, such as school or work.
Borderline Personality Disorder
Fears of being abandoned or alone
Ongoing feelings of emptiness
Believes that they are weak or unstable
Difficulty with relationships
Severe mood swings that are unpredictable
Threatens or engages in self-harm
Threatens suicide
Engages in risky or impulsive behaviors, like unsafe sex, gambling, uncontrolled spending habits
Experiences paranoia that comes and goes
Avoidant Personality Disorder
Sensitive to criticism or rejection
Does not feel good enough, important, or attractive
Does not take part in activities that include contact with others
Is usually isolated
Does not enjoy new activities or meeting new people
Appears extremely shy in social settings and in interactions with others
Fears disapproval, embarrassment, or being made fun of
Paranoid Personality Disorder
Lacks trust and is suspicious of others
Believes others are trying to harm them even without a reason to do so
Doubts the loyalty of others
Hesitates to confide in others for fear it may be used against them
Takes innocent remarks or situations as insults or personal attacks
Becomes angry or hostile toward possible slights or insults
Holds grudges
Often accuses others of being unfaithful or untrustworthy
Histrionic Personality Disorder
Always seeks attention
Overly dramatic or emotional
Uses sexual feelings or behaviors to get attentions
Speaks dramatically with strong opinions with few facts or details
Easily influenced by others
Experiences shallow emotions that change quickly
Overly concerned with physical appearance
Believes relationships with others are closer than they are
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Believes about being special and more important than others
Has fantasies about power, success, and being attractive
Does not understand the needs and feelings of others
Exaggerates the truth about achievements or talents
Demands constant praise and admiration
Feels superior to others and often brags
Expects favors and advantages without cause
Often takes advantage of others
Is jealous easily or believes others are jealous of them
Antisocial Personality Disorder
Has little or no concern for the needs or feelings of others
Often lies, steals, uses false names, or cons others
Repeated interactions with law enforcement
Often violates the rights of others
Is aggressive and violent
Little to no concern for their safety or the safety of others
Behaves impulsively and is often reckless
Little to no regret for how their behavior may hurt others
Dependent Personality Disorder
Relies on others too much and feels the need to be taken care of
Is submissive or clingy
Fears the responsibility of caring for self if left alone
Little to no confidence in their abilities
Needs a lot of advice and reassurance from others, even for small decisions
Finds it hard to start or do things because of low self-confidence
Fids it hard to disagree with others out of fear of disapproval
Tolerates mistreatment or abuse even when other options are available
Has an urgent need to start a new relationship when one ends
Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder
Focuses too much on details, orderliness, and rules
Demands perfections of self and others and gets upset when it is not achieved
Cannot finish a project because reaching perfection is not possible
Needs to be in control of people, tasks, and situations
Struggles to delegate or rely on others to do tasks
Difficulty throwing away broken or worthless objects
May seem rigid and stubborn
Is not flexible about morality, values, or ethics
May be very controlling over budgeting and spending money
Is Therapy Right for Me?
Our approach is focused on finding solutions to your experiences.
We use an integrated approach that is tailored to your needs, including maximizing any resources that you may already have. Using an integrated approach of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), we can begin to explore how your thoughts, behaviors, and emotions are connected and influence each other while breaking any cycles that aren’t working for you anymore.
Through our work together, we can isolate triggers and begin to reconstruct their influence on your life, build better habits and communication skills, and learn new and more helpful ways of managing symptoms while reducing their impact on your life.
Ready to find out more and begin your journey of healing?
Questions? We’ve got answers!
How does therapy help personality disorders?
Many personality disorders respond well to therapy. We use Dialectical Behavioral Therapy to help manage intense emotions and develop interpersonal skills; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help identify the beliefs that we have about ourselves, others, and our environment and look at ways in which those can be improved; and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy which is focused on looking at our past and finding ways to reduce it’s long term impact on our daily lives.
Can a person grow out of a personality disorder?
The verdict is still out on whether or not someone can grow out of a personality disorder, however, some theories suggest that this may be the case for personality difficulties in early childhood and adolescence. However, for many adults, intervention can not only help with managing our lives, but can give someone an opportunity to truly be heard without judgment or reprisal.
I’m not sure that therapy will be helpful or that I’m ready to make some of these changes. Many of my problems seem to come from the behaviors of others.
You could totally be right. Our interactions with others are really complicated and usually can’t be reduced down to one person being right and the other being wrong. It’s not about finding blame, but more about how to handle really difficult situations so that they don’t increase our chances for difficulties in the future. You may find that you aren’t ready to make some of the changes yet, but you won’t know until you try.
I tried therapy before and it didn’t seem to help and I didn’t feel understood.
This isn’t uncommon. Part of the journey in improving our lives can be finding someone that is a good fit. It can also be learning how to tell someone that you aren’t feeling heard or understood in a way that promotes the conversation rather than increasing conflict. It’s not too late to try again and your situation isn’t hopeless.
Life can be hard, but getting set up doesn’t have to be.
Types of Personality Disorders
Suspicious:
Paranoid Personality Disorder
Schizoid Personality Disorder
Schizotypal Personality Disorder
Emotional and impulsive:
Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
Histrionic Personality Disorder
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Anxious:
Avoidant Personality Disorder
Dependent Personality Disorder
Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD)
Find out if your insurance will cover treatment
Most insurance companies cover mental health services. Finding out if your insurance will cover your treatment is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Fill out a simple form and let us do the checking for you.