Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness that centers around the inability to effectively manage disproportionately-intense emotions. Most people with BPD respond to their overwhelming feelings with impulsive, sometimes reckless and dangerous behaviors. They often suffer from very unstable self-images and relationships. 10% of those with BPD end their lives by suicide. Negative spiraling into self-injurious, even suicidal, tendencies can be exacerbated when well-intentioned friends and family react in less-than-skillful ways. The evidenced-based treatment found in NEABPD’s ground-breaking psychoeducation and support course called “Family Connections,” has been shown to teach friends and family members information and skills which help in managing difficult emotions, decreasing the incidents of crisis compared to control groups, bringing hope to those with the symptoms of the disorder, including severe emotion dysregulation.
Family Connections™ is a free 12-week course that meets weekly to provide education, skills training, and support to people who are in a relationship with someone who has traits of BPD. Focusing on issues that are specific to BPD and emotion dysregulation, it is hosted in a community setting and led by trained group leaders who are usually family members of relatives with BPD. Dr. Alan Fruzzetti and Dr. Perry Hoffman developed the course based on their research as well as their significant professional expertise in counseling people with BPD and their loved ones. Family Connections provides: current information and research on BPD and on family functioning; individual coping skills based on Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT); family skills; and group support that builds an ongoing network for family members.