Redecision Therapy with Personality Disorders: How Does It Work and What are the Results?

Abstract

This article describes how redecision therapy is applied in the Psychotherapeutic Centre de Viersprong in the Netherlands. A case example demonstrates the use of redecision therapy to change the script of a 42-year-old patient who had personality problems for more than 20 years. The strengths and some weaknesses of redecision therapy are discussed, and some research on redecision therapy is described. McNeel (1977) demonstrated favorable results with a group of 15 patients. Thunnissen et al. (2008) evaluated the results of the Centre de Viersprong inpatient program with 128 patients and concluded that the effect of the program was significant. Fifty-nine percent of patients had symptom improvement that took them into a normal range, and 82% had a job 2 years after their involvement in the psychotherapeutic program.

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