“If you don’t have a word for something, you may doubt whether it’s even real” – how individuals with borderline personality disorder experience change

Objective: This study explored how psychological change was experienced and what treatment-related factors or events were perceived as supporting hindering their process by individuals with borderline personality disorder.Methods: Eight BPD sufferers attended a 40-session psychoeducational group intervention at community mental health care center. At end, personal experience of meaningful in an in-depth interview data content-analyzed. Change symptoms assessed the Borderline Personality Disorder Severity Index IV interview.Results: The qualitative content analysis on subjectively yielded three core categories: (1) improved ability to observe understand events, (2) decreased disconnection from emotions, emergence new adaptive emotional reactions decrease maladaptive ones, (3) new, more self agency. Accordingly, learning normalizing emerged main categories helpful treatment factors. In turn, obstacles were: aggression group, inflexibility. With respect symptom change, four participants considered clinically remitted, two showed reliable change.Conclusions: Long-term therapy seems enhance mentalization / metacognitive functioning promote (or personality) integration patients.