Bo, Sune; Lind, Maisje; Fonagy, Peter; (2025) The outside of psychotherapy – the socioecological approach to treating severe personality pathology in a young patient. Journal of Clinical Psychology 10.1002/jclp.70031. (In press).

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Abstract

The socioecological treatment approach is rooted in fundamental principles of mentalization-based therapy (MBT) and evolutionary theory. Rather than focusing solely on the individual, this approach broadens the perspective to include the patient’s wider social network in understanding and treating mental health disorders such as personality pathology. A core premise of this approach is that problems and their solutions should not be viewed in isolation but identified in close collaboration with the patient’s environment. The socioecological approach integrates treatment network meetings, involving individuals who are directly engaged in and significant to the patient’s life. These meetings facilitate the development of a system case-formulation and a system attachment map. A self-report instrument, NETWORK-AIM (NET-AIM), is used throughout the process to assess interventions and evaluate meetings, with input from all key members of the patient’s network. This approach is illustrated through the case of Olivia, a young girl suffering from personality pathology. Her treatment exemplifies how multiple individuals within her environment collaborated to support her reintegration into the social world (communication system 3) alongside individual therapy. Olivia’s 13-month treatment process led to substantial improvements, including enhanced social engagement, increased trust in others, fewer mood swings, reduced self-harm, and greater involvement with friends and work. The findings underscore the need to move beyond individual treatment models towards systemic, proactive interventions that integrate broader social relationships into therapeutic processes when treating adolescents with personality pathology.

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