ABSTRACT
This chapter teaches clinicians how to weave a safety phase into the treatment process to build a therapeutic alliance. During this phase, psychoeducation serves as the main tool for helping clients develop self-compassion. The therapist facilitates basic emotional regulation skills such as mindfulness and awareness of feelings. Goal-setting is realistic and includes preparation for the ups and downs in intensity of urges to pick and pull. A comprehensive assessment includes screening for trauma and information about psychosocial stressors from each client’s past and present, culminating in a psychodynamic case formulation. This formulation, in turn, is used to create a therapeutic plan. Case examples of the process of assessment, goal-setting and beginning the process of co-regulation draw the reader into the clinical mindset.
