Experiential Techniques in Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy with Personality Disorders

Giancarlo Dimaggio is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session; senior associate editor for the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration; and associate editor for Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice. He is a co-founding member of the Center for Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy.Antonella Centonze is a clinical psychologist at the Center for Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy.Paolo Ottavi, psychologist and psychotherapist, is the main developer of two published treatments with empirical support: Metacognition Oriented Social Skills Training and Metacognitive-Interpersonal Based Mindfulness Training.Raffaele Popolo is a co-founding member of the Center for Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy, a trainer at the Società Italiana di Terapia Comportamentale e Cognitiva (SITCC), and a trainer of the psychotherapy school ‘Studi Cognitivi’.

• 1. Interactions between experiential techniques and the therapeutic relationship: A classification; 2. Personality psychopathology in metacognitive interpersonal therapy; 3. The therapeutic relationship in MIT: general principles and interaction with techniques; 4. Decision-making and relational procedures: shared formulation of functioning; 5. Decision-making and relational procedures: change promoting; 6. Narrative episodes, early access to healthy parts, and dynamic assessment; 7. Identify the narrative structures underlying the episodes; 8. Reconstruction of coping and beginning work on symptoms when metacognition is poor; 9. Reconstruct functioning and recognize the Interpersonal pattern as such: the completion of the shared formulation; 10. Differentiate and strengthen the healthy parts, recognizing the shifts back to the schema; 11. Pursuing wishes by exploring the environment and interrupting avoidance: counteracting tendencies to return to schemas after successful experiments; 12. Forming a more mature theory of others’ minds: recognizing one’s own contribution to relational dysfunction and building an integrated model of self and others; 13. Dealing with relationship problems, coping, and residual symptoms; 14. Conclusions: technically active yet relationship-conscious