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# Evidence-Based Treatments for Personality Disorders

## Understanding the Hidden Agenda

## Enroll in the Online Self-Study and complete the training on your own schedule.

## 6 CE hours available for behavioral health clinicians completing the Online Self-Study

"Evidence-Based Treatments for Personality Disorders" is one of two courses that comprise the [Personality Disorders Counseling Certificate (**PDCC**)](/personality-disorders-counseling-certificate-program) program. Enroll in the full program and earn 12 total CEs and the **PDCCC**.

**Treating personality disorders often requires more than insight, symptom management, or discussion of what happened between sessions. Long-standing beliefs and coping patterns can shape emotion regulation, relationships, treatment engagement, and the therapeutic relationship itself, while progress may be gradual and uneven. Clinicians need a coherent way to understand what is maintaining the presentation, choose realistic targets, balance validation with change, and respond when the same patterns emerge in the room.**

Designed for licensed and pre-licensed behavioral health professionals who work with complex personality presentations, this training offers an integrated DBT, CBT, and schema-focused framework drawn from evidence-supported approaches. The emphasis is on organizing treatment around a clear conceptualization, matching intervention depth to the client’s needs and readiness, and maintaining realistic expectations about safety, comorbidity, available resources, and the extended course of care often required for deeper change.

Register for the 6 CE Online Self-Study for **$180**

*Payment Options are listed at checkout*

[Register Now - 6 CEs](/index.php?option=com_hikashop&ctrl=product&task=updatecart&quantity=1&cid=1560&Itemid=2665)

Jeff Riggenbach, Ph.D., brings more than two decades of experience treating personality disorders in inpatient and outpatient settings. His specialized preparation includes a three-day staff training led by Marsha Linehan, postdoctoral training at the Beck Institute with Aaron Beck, Judith Beck, and Leslie Sokol, and schema therapy training through the Midwest Schema Therapy Institute. He also helped develop an integrated treatment program that has served more than 500 people with borderline personality disorder, along with clients with other personality presentations, and has trained clinicians in all 50 states and nine countries. This combination of formal training, program development, and direct clinical work informs the practical treatment framework presented here.

Through case examples, client worksheets, and structured treatment tools, the material is translated into practical applications for individual and group settings. Clinicians are encouraged to view difficult behaviors as understandable products of schemas, learning histories, and current contexts, recognize incremental progress, and use validation, collaboration, boundaries, and carefully timed here-and-now observations without reinforcing the cycles treatment is intended to change.

The course examines how DBT skills, standard CBT interventions, and schema modification can be sequenced from behavioral stabilization to deeper belief change. Collaborative conceptualization maps connect significant experiences, schemas, present-day triggers, and target behaviors so treatment planning, session focus, and documentation follow a coherent clinical rationale. Examples across a range of personality presentations—including more detailed work with borderline and narcissistic patterns—show how interventions can be adapted to functioning, readiness, setting, available resources, and pace of change, while relapse-prevention, booster-session, and self-therapy planning support a more deliberate transition out of regular treatment.

![Jeff Riggenbach Headshot]()

### Instructor

**Jeff Riggenbach, Ph.D.**

Jeff Riggenbach, Ph.D., is a 3-time best-selling author and speaker/trainer/coach with the John Maxwell Team who has trained audiences in all 50 United States, the UK, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

He has devoted the past 20 years to developing advanced expertise in thinking and personality styles. In addition to the clinical programs he has directed for treating personality disorders with cognitive behavioral therapy, his recent work has centered around cultivating mindsets for effective communication in workplace environments, school systems, and faith-based settings. Additionally, he is a certified DISC behavioral consultant with Personality Insights.

Jeff is a leader in the personal and professional development space and provides keynote addresses, live in-house workshops, and webinar-based online courses for corporate, clinical, educational, and faith-based audiences worldwide. His 7th and most recent publication, Disarming High Conflict Personalities: Dealing with the 8 Most Difficult People in Your Life Before You Burnout, has just been released and is available where books are sold.

**Key Takeaways:**

- **Evidence-informed treatment choices:** Clarify what the research does and does not establish about supported approaches and how DBT, CBT, and schema-focused strategies can serve different treatment purposes.
- **Conceptualization that directs care:** Link significant experiences, beliefs, triggers, behaviors, and goals in a practical formulation that guides priorities, agenda setting, intervention, and documentation.
- **Planning for sustained gains:** Use relapse-prevention, booster-session, and self-therapy strategies to help clients recognize warning signs, continue practicing skills, and approach the end of treatment more deliberately.

**Why this course?**

- **A realistic approach to complex change:** Understand why progress may be incremental, why deeper schema work takes time, and how to recognize meaningful improvement without overstating outcomes.
- **The relationship as a treatment setting:** Learn to address interpersonal patterns as they appear with the clinician while balancing validation, boundaries, collaboration, and change.
- **Experience translated into usable tools:** Applied examples and worksheets drawn from extensive inpatient and outpatient work help connect the framework to individual and group practice.

**Learning Objectives:**

- **Discuss** 8 evidence-based treatments for personality disorders.
- **Describe** 5 characteristics unique to treating these diagnoses effectively.
- **Explain** 18 early maladaptive schemas driving target behaviors, including historical, cultural, and other environmental risk factors influencing them.
- **Design** case conceptualization diagrams to drive treatment planning, agenda setting, and documentation.
- **Describe** 3 schema modes in narcissism and design mode work strategies.
- **Compare** the 2 types of relapse prevention sessions with the typical course of care sessions.

Register to strengthen your ability to organize treatment for personality disorders around a clear conceptualization, select interventions that fit the client’s needs and readiness, and respond more deliberately when entrenched patterns emerge in and outside the therapy room. The framework and tools can support more focused, realistic, and collaborative care across the course of treatment.

[Enroll in the Online Self-Study](#EnrollmentOptions)

### Select each tab for course details

Course Details

**Availability:** From the time of registration, you have six months to access the coursework.

**Who Should Attend:** This course is intended for clinicians who provide behavioral health services.

**Teaching Methods:** This is a non-interactive, self-study course. Teaching methods for this course include recorded lectures, videos, a post-test, and a course evaluation.

**How to attend:** [**Directions for completing a course can be found by clicking here.**](/how-to-complete-a-course)

**This program was recorded on August 14, 2026.**

CE Hours

**Credit Hours:** CEs provided with this course include 6 continuing education hours of credit.

**Counselors:** Telehealth Certification Institute LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No, 6693.  Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0048.

**Marriage and Family Therapists:** Many MFT licensing boards accept our courses or one of the approvals which we have from professional associations.  You can check with your board to determine if this course would be accepted by your licensing board.

**Social Workers:** Telehealth Certification Institute LLC, #1609, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 05/02/2024 – 05/02/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 6 clinical continuing education credits.

Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0435.

**Addiction Professionals:** This course has been approved by Telehealth Certification Institute LLC, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #193104, Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is responsible for all aspects of the programming.

**Psychologists:** Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Telehealth Certification Institute LLC maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0128.

**Art Therapists:** Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists #CAT-0093.

**Other Professionals:** This course qualifies for 360 minutes of instructional content as required by many national, state and local licensing boards and professional organizations.  Retain your certificate of completion and contact your board or organization for specific filing requirements.

**This is a non-interactive, self-study course.**

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You can click on the following links to view our policies:

- [Accommodations for Individuals with Disabilities.](/students-with-disabilities)
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## Testimonials

I completed the Telehealth Training. This training was very effective for me because it was self-paced. I was able to work at my own pace to fully grasp the information. In addition, the various graphics and explanations made retaining the information better for my learning style. I also enjoyed the small quizzes at the end that helped increase my understanding and application of the information. I will definitely recommend this course to other clinicians!

Iveyana Kiara Smith

This bundle of Clinical Supervision courses helped me to feel more confident as a clinical supervisor. It provided well rounded content and helped me feel more prepared for stepping into a supervisory role. I highly recommend these courses and appreciate that they are self-paced.

Jessy Hainbach

The Foundations for Working With Families Engaged in High Conflict Divorce, Training Video was very helpful in developing skills to navigate work with families experiencing this.

Bryant Wilson

The TeleMental Health Training Certificate Program was incredibly easy to navigate, with a smooth and intuitive layout that made learning stress-free. The content flowed logically, building on each section in a way that felt natural and engaging. I appreciated how clear the instructions were—everything I needed was right where I expected it to be.

Ben Keyser

Professional development available anytime without time restrictions!

Mei Chan

Enhancing Clinical Supervision: Supporting Autistic and other Neurodivergent Therapists in Clinical Settings training was absolutely wonderful! Thorough, detailed, and kept my attention.

Meghan Co, LCSW-C, LICSW

[View All 700+ Testimonials](/about-us/testimonials)

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