Michaela Swales, PhD
ESSPD President
News from ESSPD President
Transforming Futures: Integrating Lived Experience, Research, and Practice
Lausanne, Switzerland will be the location of our 8th international congress, held on 7-9th September 2026 with the generous support of the Department of Psychiatry-CHUV, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
Our focus is on Transforming Futures – both for our clients and our discipline.
Join us for exciting and innovative research topics and clinical workshops
Check out the conference webpage for more details about our confirmed Plenary Speakers, Workshop leaders and further details about this exciting event.
Michaela Swales, PhD
President ESSPD
Here’s a preview of our latest posts and announcements on Bluesky:
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: December 1st, 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)
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.