Foundations of Personality Disorders | Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare

Foundations of Personality Disorders provides practitioners with a comprehensive introduction to personality, personality development, and contemporary understandings of personality disorders. The training explores common presentations , particularly borderline, antisocial, and narcissistic personality disorders and offers practical, trauma-informed strategies for engagement, boundary setting, crisis response, and self-care. The session emphasises person-centred, recovery-oriented approaches and highlights how patterns of coping develop over time in response to biological, relational, and environmental factors.

Learning outcomes

Participants completing this workshop will be able to:

• Describe personality and how it develops across the lifespan.
• Explain contemporary understandings of personality disorders and how they present in
  practice.
• Recognise stigma, myths, and misconceptions and apply person-centred, respectful language.
• Identify common features associated with borderline, antisocial, and narcissistic personality
  disorders.
• Outline biological, relational and environmental factors that contribute to personality disorder
  development.
• Apply trauma-informed, recovery-oriented approaches when supporting individuals with
  personality disorders.
• Reflect on personal responses and develop strategies for maintaining wellbeing, professional
  boundaries, and consistency in practice.

Intended audience

This session is designed for practitioners working across community services, child and family
services, youth programs, mental health, psychosocial support and other frontline sectors where
clients may present with personality disorder traits or diagnoses. It is suited to non-clinical workers
such as case managers, support workers, youth workers, family practitioners and peer workers who
engage with individuals experiencing emotional dysregulation, relational instability or complex
coping patterns. No clinical qualifications are required, as the training focuses on recognition,
engagement, boundaries and safe referral within a person-centred framework.

Register here