Assessment and Management of Personality Disorders: Understanding the Hidden Agenda

Description

Assessment and Management of Personality Disorders: Understanding the Hidden Agenda is Module One of the 2-course Personality Disorders Counseling Certificate (PDCC). For more information on the PDCC and discounted enrollment in the full program, please visit this page.

Personality disordered individuals are often described as “resistant,” yet what looks like noncompliance is frequently a “hidden agenda” shaped by extreme perceptual differences that drive dysregulated emotion and impulsive or destructive coping—meaning that assessment and management often improve most when we understand what the client is perceiving, and adjust how we communicate in response.

When you can recognize personality disorders as disorders of perception—rather than simply “difficult behavior”—you gain a more workable pathway to differential diagnosis, realistic expectations about treatability, and practical management strategies that increase cooperation and keep sessions moving toward clear, goal-oriented work.

Jeff Riggenbach, Ph.D., is a speaker/trainer/coach with the John Maxwell Team and a 3-time best-selling author who has trained audiences internationally, and he has devoted the past 20 years to developing advanced expertise in thinking and personality styles. He trained personally with Marsha Linehan and with Drs. Aaron and Judith Beck at The Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research, bringing a strong CBT foundation to the clinical complexities of personality disorders. In addition to directing clinical programs for treating personality disorders with cognitive behavioral therapy, he consults and trains across clinical, educational, and organizational settings—keeping the course grounded in what actually helps clinicians communicate effectively and manage patterns that derail treatment.

In this training, Jeff teaches from an integrated DBT/CBT/Schema Therapy model developed over 15 years of clinical application and refinement. The emphasis is on translating diagnostic understanding into moment-to-moment communication choices and behavioral management interventions, so you can connect with each disorder’s “agenda” rather than getting stuck in power struggles, misattunement, or repeated ruptures.

You’ll begin with an overview of how personality disorders have been conceptualized across DSM versions, then move into the key characteristics that make this population clinically unique and easier to “spot” in real practice. From there, you’ll walk through the agendas and management approaches associated with each of the 10 DSM-5 personality disorders, including differential diagnosis considerations, etiological and epidemiological factors, treatability, and the 18 early maladaptive schemas driving target behaviors (including historical, cultural, and other environmental risk factors). The day is structured to cover Cluster A and Cluster C disorders first, followed by non-borderline Cluster B disorders, and concluding with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).

Key Takeaways:

• Diagnostic confidence across all 10 PDs: Strengthen your ability to analyze DSM-5 criteria, differentiate overlapping presentations, and recognize the key characteristics that set PDs apart from other psychological conditions.
• A schema-informed map of “what’s driving it”: Learn to identify the 18 early maladaptive schemas and the historical, cultural, and environmental risk factors influencing the agendas behind target behaviors.
• Management strategies that improve cooperation: Leave with practical, disorder-specific plans for communication and behavioral management, grounded in an integrated DBT/CBT/Schema Therapy approach and linked to realistic expectations about treatability.

Why This Course?

• A clinician-first framework (not just theory): Telehealth Certification Institute is built to equip healthcare professionals with exceptional continuing education that makes real clinical work easier—especially when cases feel “stuck,” high-conflict, or chronically derailed by misunderstandings and ruptures.
• Instruction shaped by deep, relevant expertise: Jeff’s background in thinking and personality styles, his CBT training lineage, and his long-term focus on effective communication provide a direct fit for mastering differential diagnosis and management strategies for PD presentations.
• A focus on the “hidden agenda” you can actually use: Rather than treating “resistance” as the primary problem, this course centers on the reality that agendas differ, perceptions differ, and communication must shift accordingly—an approach that supports clearer assessment, stronger connection, and more goal-oriented treatment.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze the diagnostic criteria and explain key differential diagnosis considerations for each of the 10 DSM 5 personality disorders.
• Identify etiological and epidemiological factors associated with each.
• List the 5 characteristics that differentiate PDs from other psychological conditions.
• Assess the treatability of each of the 10 personality disorders.
• Describe the 18 early maladaptive schemas driving target behaviors, including historical, cultural, and other environmental risk factors influencing them.
• Plan management strategies for all 10 DSM 5 personality disorders.

By the end of this training, you’ll be better equipped to assess, diagnose, and manage individuals with personality disorders uniquely based upon their specific agendas, and you’ll have a clearer way to connect with clients whose perceptual differences have long been misunderstood as “resistance.” If you want a more structured, clinically grounded approach that reduces session derailments and increases cooperation without compromising boundaries or standards of care, this course offers an actionable foundation you can start applying right away.

Format and Access

This is a non-interactive, self-study course that offers over 6 hours of recorded video instruction, a post-test and a course evaluation.

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: 

Course access and completion instructions.

Instructor and Disclosures

Instructor

About Jeff Riggenbach, Ph.D.

Jeff Riggenbach, PhD, is a best-selling and award-winning author/speaker/clinician who has trained audiences in all 50 United States, Canada, Mexico, The UK, Ireland, Malta, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. He has devoted the past 25 years to developing advanced expertise in cognition and personality. He personally trained at The Beck Institute of Cognitive Therapy and Research to develop his hospital's Borderline Personality Disorder Treatment Program, which has not treated over 500 patients with BPD across multiple levels of care. He has since developed and directed cognitive-behavioral based programs for Depression, Anxiety Disorders, and Addictive Behavior Disorders. Jeff's approach of taking evidence-based treatments and presenting them in ways that can be used by everyday clinicians "in the trenches" has earned him the nickname "The Practical Toolbox Guy," and his trainings often receive the highest marks from conference participants.

Disclosure Statement: 

The instructor(s) for this course receive compensation for their services. There are no reported conflicts of interest to disclose.

CE Hours

Credit Hours:

This course consists of 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 your licensing board would accept this course.

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 marriage and family therapists #MFT-0135, effective May 8, 2025.

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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