ABSTRACT
When a supervisee asks, ‘how do I work with this angry client?’ they are most often asking for support in their practice with a borderline personality. Such clients operate entirely from hot rage, which ranges from ‘warm related’ (Joines and Stewart, 2002) to murderous; they employ the passive behaviours (Schiff and Schiff, 1971) of agitating and incapacitation, often describe themselves as having a ‘short fuse’ and are regularly referred or refer themselves for anger management. This chapter includes a fictionalized case study which demonstrates a relational approach with the borderline personality; it is a composite of work with many clients, includes my own experience as a client, and captures the messy, anxiety-provoking, profoundly satisfying and profoundly dissatisfying therapeutic process. The chapter highlights helpful interventions for working with this client group, the disconcerting and raw responses that can be evoked in the practitioner, and some potential pitfalls including examples of common ‘technical mistakes’ (Gabbard, 1991), errors that, paradoxically, further the therapeutic process.
