The ESSPD is saddened by the violence and the attacks in several regions of the world. Our thoughts go to the regions of the world in need of peace.
News from ESSPD President
Michaela Swales, PhD
ESSPD President
December 2024
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
Following on from our successful conference in Antwerp, we are looking ahead to the forthcoming events of the ESSPD. This year we have two major events that we hope will be of interest to you: our Clinical Workshops in Riga, Latvia (5-7 June 2025) and our Summer School for early career researchers in Fidenza (Parma), Italy (31 August – 6th September 2025).
Our Clinical Workshops in Riga are focusing on dealing with alliance ruptures in treatment of people with a personality disorder diagnosis. Leading international experts in different theoretical models will offer workshops on addressing difficulties in the therapeutic alliance from their unique perspectives using case material, role-plays and videos. Six different perspectives will be covered during the event: Cognitive Behaviour Therapy; Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Guideline-Informed Treatment for Personality Disorder, Schema-Focussed Therapy and Transference-Focussed Psychotherapy. The programme allows you to attend multiple workshops enabling you to see new and contrasting perspectives. The event will commence with a plenary bringing you up to date with the research on the therapeutic alliance delivered by Dr. Anna Babl, Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology at the University of Leiden, an expert in mechanisms of change and the therapeutic alliance. Our six experts will then discuss a clinical case from their different perspectives. Details of our experts will be announced soon.
Our Summer School in August is being held in the beautiful hills around Parma in Italy. This event is for early career researchers to meet with experts in the field to review and discuss their current and proposed research. This year our focus is on increasing methodological competencies in conducting high quality research in the domain of psychosocial functioning and recovery – a topic of vital importance to people with lived experience of personality disorder diagnoses. Click here for more details and how to apply. Reduced fees are available for participants from Eastern European countries.
Our conference in 2026 will be in Lausanne, Switzerland. Our theme and keynote speakers will be announced in Spring 2025.
Keep connected with our work via this website but also follow us on social media for latest announcements and upcoming events. You can follow us on LinkedIn or X (Twitter).
Michaela Swales, PhD
President ESSPD
Dear colleagues, friends and ESSPD members,
We are happy to invite you to watch interviews and the presidential discussion from our 6th International Congress on Borderline Personality Disorder and Allied Disorders which was held online from 10–12 October 2022.
The overarching theme of the conference was:
“Change for a better future: Perspectives beyond symptoms“
Babette Renneberg, PhD
ESSPD Past President
Scientific Journal
Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotional Dysregulation edited by Martin Bohus, Christian Schmahl and John M. Oldham is the official journal of the ESSPD. The open access journal focuses on the psychological, social, and neurobiological aspects of emotion dysregulation. It covers the whole range of BPD research including epidemiology, phenomenology, pathophysiology, psychological, and pharmacological treatment, neurobiology, genetics, and animal models of BPD. The journal impact factor for 2023 is 4,0. The ESSPD donates three Waivers for Article Processing Charges (APC) primarily to members from Eastern European countries.
ESSPD Announcements
Call for Papers: Feeling close to others? Social cognitive mechanisms of intimacy in personality disorders
Journal: Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation
Submission deadline: June 1, 2025
Editors: Chiara De Panfilis, Zsolt Unoka, Stefanie Lis (Editorial)
For questions related to the call for papers email Chiara De Panfilis (chiara.depanfilis@unipr.it)
Call for Papers: Dimensional constructs of personality disorders. Implications for psychotherapy integration
Journal: Journal of Psychotherapy Integration
Submission deadline: December 31, 2024
Questions related to the call for papers, email Joost Hutsebaut, PhD, Carla Sharp, PhD, or Ueli Kramer, PhD.
ESSPD Research Update
The quarterly newsletter is focused upon the theme of borderline personality disorder, physical health, morbidity and mortality as well as BPD, trauma and PTSD, and contains a review of the five most innovative contributions to the literature in the recent months. The corresponding scientific writer is Sophie Liljedahl, PhD.
Deaths by suicide and other causes among patients with borderline personality disorder and personality-disordered comparison subjects over 24 years of prospective follow-up
Borderline personality disorder and self-directed violence in a sample of suicidal army soldiers
Upcoming Conferences
Check out our events page for upcoming relevant conferences in the larger field.
The ESSPD
Stimulates and supports scholarship, clinical experience, international collaboration and communication of research on all aspects of personality disorders including epidemiology, etiology, diagnosis and assessment, course and treatment in Europe.
Society with a European signature which will address the specific needs of the European personality disorder field and actively will expand it to countries in which it is less developed.
Actively seeks contact and cooperation with family and users organizations and is open to professionals who are actively involved or interested in the study, assessment and treatment of personality disorders.
Closely cooperates with the International Society for the Study of Personality Disorders, ISSPD.