Avances en Salud Mental Relacional / Advances in relational mental health
Vol.5, núm.3 - Noviembre 2006
Órgano Oficial de expresión de la Fundación OMIE
Revista Internacional On-line / An International On-line Journal
GROUP THERAPY FOR PATIENTS WITH BORDERLINE PERSONALITY
DISORDERS : A REVIEW
JOSÉ GUIMÓN AND WENDY DÁVILA
Kernberg related personality disorders to early defence mechanisms against sexual
and aggressive drives and highlighted the role played by the dysfunctions in object relations,
established during early infancy. It is in childhood when the patient sets in motion
pathological defence mechanism (dissociation, acting out, projective identification etc.). Later
studies contend that most core symptoms of the disorder, such as: a diffuse sense of self,
bursts of rage, unstable interpersonal relationships, feelings of emptiness and abandonment,
chronic fears of, and an intolerance for aloneness, have their roots in an impaired organization
of the underlying attachment (in Bowlby's sense). Levy et al
underline that individual
differences in the attachments of adult people are rooted in the early patterns of interaction
with caregivers and the completion of a number of attachment measures, revealed six factors
that clustered into three groups (an avoidant attachment pattern, a preoccupied attachment
pattern, and a fearfully preoccupied pattern).
These patients are difficult to manage in individual analytical psychotherapy, due to
their instability, which is frequently related to a loss of self-esteem and identity confusion.
The course of therapy tends to be disturbed by intense transferences and various acts, such as
suicide attempts, attacks of rage, and self-mutilation caused by suicidal thoughts. Kernberg
recommended confronting these patients and interpreting their negative transference early on,
whereas other authors
advise therapists to limit themselves to acting as a holding
environment for the patient and avoid interpretations. There is a high percentage of drop-out
in these patients.
1. FROM THE CIRCLE TO THE COMMUNITY
Indeed, group therapy offers the advantages of being less expensive; making
transference easier to manage; and producing an improvement in ego functioning
and
interpersonal functioning , and a drop in the patient's regressive tendencies . Moreover, these
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patients are more likely to take advice or have confrontations with other patients than with the
therapist, and they have the possibility to relate with them on an equal level.
Dawson
proposes a program with the aim of « managing emotions » in which
therapists show themselves as permissive even if they forbid acting out. Regular attendance
at meetings is not obligatory, which means that only 30% of regular presence which forms the
nucleus of patients is more or less constant, while there exists in addition a much greater
cloud of patients who show up from time to time in the group searching for occasional help.
1.1. Multidimensional programmes
Group therapy is frequently part of a multidimensional programme, including
medication and different types of psychotherapy. In relation to this, some fairly specific
treatments have been used, including serotonin reuptake inhibitors, mood stabilizers, and
neuroleptics at a low dose level.
The therapeutic groups tend to be heterogeneous in composition although the present
most popular programs Linehan's Dialectical Behavioural Therapy and .Bateman´s are
homogeneous. The orientation of groups tends to be eclectic, and although open
psychodynamic groups are the most frequent, others focus on such aspects as acting out,
splitting, countertransference, and the focus and eroticisation of relationships.
1.2. Part time or full time hospitalization
Because of these risks of acting out, the therapist must be able to count on a support
system to offer more holding for these kinds of patients, i.e. a hospital unit (which should be
avoided as much as possible in order to not embark on a prolonged and counterproductive
relationship with the institution) or a day hospital.
Recently, the work under a psychodynamic perspective by Bateman and by Bateman
and Fonagy have shown favorable results with treatment based on dynamic psychotherapy in
a day hospital.
Springer , based on existing literature, proposes a framework in which an effective,
short-term group treatment is organized by using it for a short term on hospitalized patients.
1.3. Therapeutic communities
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Avances en Salud Mental Relacional / Advances in relational mental health
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Therapeutic communities have had difficulties in surviving in the medicalized
atmosphere wrought by "managed-care" strategies which are prevalent in most Western
countries .
However, some authors such as Dolan et al. used a complete group program with
hospitalized patients. Similarly, Hafner and Holme
made a prospective study with 48
residents of a therapeutic community with borderline personality disorders.
On our side , over the past 20 years we have developed a certain number of group
programs or "decaffeinated therapeutic communities" . These programmes have been
developed in many psychiatric services with an orientation towards community therapy in a
dozen different care units, (short-stay units in general hospitals, rehabilitation units, day
hospitals) for severe psychiatric patients, including many with borderline personality disorder,
both in Spain and in Switzerland (Guimón, 2001). They include, at the minimum, a daily
medium-sized group bringing together patients and staff and a "small" group of patients, with
a dynamic orientation but with occasional cognitive-behavioral tendencies as well as group
activities (« group work » in Foulkes' sense).
.
The Therapeutic communitie approach should be an antidote to the trend toward
managed care for this kind of patients. Effectively, some borderline patients with serious
symptoms (incompetence, suicidality, dependency) who suffer from a feeling of profound
insecurity will continue to need long-term, intensive therapy and we should display some
reticence when faced with attempts to reduce or dilute the services we offer (Campling &
Dixon Lodge, 1999a, 1999b; Campling & Haigh, 1999).
A training process which
corresponds to therapeutic community principles should encourage the growth and
differentiation of patients and, as Campling and Haigh warn, avoid indoctrination and
infantilization that are typical of medical training but also of psychoanalytical training.
Although the philosophy of therapeutic communities has become especially widespread over
the last few years in half-way institutions, the hospital-based therapeutic community will
continue to justify itself.
Effectively, it combines socio-therapeutic treatment and
psychotherapeutic treatment with the advantages of a hospital context ; it has shown itself,
moreover, to be useful in the treatment of borderline personality disorder and the
rehabilitation of certain delinquents.
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2. RESULTS
The group therapy was found to be as efficient as individual therapy in the previously
mentioned program of « managing emotions » and the patients who participated in groups
showed better treatment compliance. Fuerthermore, a controlled study compared individual
and group psychotherapy showed better results with this second approach. Wood et al.
compared group therapy with the routine care for adolescents, (who had deliberately self
harmed and were in their majority borderline). They found that those under group therapy
were less likely to be "repeaters" although they did not differ, however, in their global
outcome. Hawton et al (Hawton et al., 2002) evaluated all randomised controlled trials
regarding the effectiveness of treatments of patients who have deliberately self-harmed and
found reduced rates of further self-harm for depot flupenthixol vs. placebo and for dialectical
behaviour therapy vs. standard aftercare
As for the theoretical orientation, significant positive results have been found with the
cognitive-behavioral approach of Linehan named the "dialectical behavior therapy" (DBT).
The method was first initiated for young women who were parasuicidal and was then
extended to persons with behavioral problems to resolve « dialectic » failures. Effectively,
from a theoretical point of view, Linehan made reference to this dialectic reasoning which
brings into opposition poles such as emotional vulnerability vs. invalidation, active
passiveness vs. competency, and demonstrative crises vs. emotional inhibition.
DBT programs combine individual and group approaches in problem solving and in
training in skills. In the psychoeducational groups, patients are taught a certain number of
skills in regulating emotion, interpersonal functioning and stress tolerance. The patients take
part in these groups during at least one year, and then take part in help groups to reinforce the
application of skills. At the individual and concomitant therapy, which lasts at least one year,
the patients are taught to integrate these skills into daily life. Rules to generalize the
apprenticeship to the outside world (even with the use of the telephone) are proposed. The
group is closed or, at the maximum, slowly opened.
The psychoanalytical approaches are especially based on the theory of object relations.
Most of the approaches have been developed in hospital environments or in half-way centers.
It is principally the work of Kernberg that uses the psychoanalytical model of object relations
(Kernberg, Kibel, Russakoff) in the program of "Transference Focus Psychotherapy" (TFP).
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The accent is placed on increasing the fortress of the ego and improving the experience of
reality with an attempt at internal reconstitution. From a technical point of view, the splitting
mechanism is rather more reinforced than struggled against and the open exteriorizing of
aggression realization of group interpretation, based on the « here and now » favoring
cohesion, is encouraged.
Bateman and Fonagy compared the evolution of 19 patients who were treated through
hospitalization partially oriented from a psychoanalytical perspective, with the same number
of patients who had received a general psychiatric treatment. Self-mutilating behavior and
suicide attempts decreased during the 18-month program, in the former, in contrast with the
latter. In the same way, the average hospital stay was shorter than for those who followed a
general treatment.
As for the therapeutic community oriented programs, Hafner and Holme (Hafner &
Holme, 1996)led a study in order to determine which elements of the program were most
useful. They discovered a reduction in significant symptoms on the Brief Symptom Inventory
took place at discharge after an average stay of 64 days and the rates of admission to hospital
fell in a significant fashion during the year after discharge. The patients rated group therapy as
the most useful element of the program. Sabo et al. followed up, in a prospective fashion, 37
hospitalized patients, suffering from borderline personality disorder, over a five-year period,
to evaluate the changes in two forms of self-destructiveness. They noted that suicidal conduct
diminished significantly, that self-aggressive conduct presented a certain tendency but not a
significant decrease and that aggressive ideation (both suicidal and self-destructive) did not
decrease in a notable fashion. Dolan et al evaluated the impact of therapeutic community
oriented treatment in 137 patients hospitalized on the principal symptoms of personality
disorder. They noted a significantly greater improvement in those treated than in the group
« not admitted » having a significant positive correlation with the length of treatment.
Finally, Schimmel
underlines the efficacy of therapeutic community treatment for
patients suffering from borderline personality disorder..
In a recent a naturalistic study we have evaluated the outcome of 109 patients (64,2 %
Borderline and 35,8% Non-Borderline) treated in a day unit we organized in 2003 in Bilbao.
with an average hospital stay of 50 days. We find an excellent attendance with a lack of
differences between BPD and Non BPD, contradicting our hypotheses, based in the literature,
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that BPD would have a more irregular attendance. In fact, the drop-out rate was smaller in
BPD than in Non-BPD (p= 0,499). There was an important improvement of the symptoms
whithout differences between BPD and Non- BBP. However, in the BSI , BPD patients had a
larger range in symptoms. There was also an important improvement in global functioning
without differences between BPD and Non-BPD in the relationships with others. However
BPD obtained a statistically significant higher improvement than Non-BPD in "daily life
activities" (P= 0,035). In view of the results
we uderscore the need for more naturalistic studies and, we favour eclectic, brief, dynamic, day
hospital approaches with heterogeneous patients as an optimal emergency approach for people
with BPD
A recent Cochrane review identified seven studies involving 262 people, and five
separate comparisons. In the studies comparing dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), with
treatment as usual, no difference was found in the outcome of hospital admissions in the
previous 3 months, or in the outcome 6 months after being discharged. (Though, self harm or
parasuicide may decrease at 6 to 12 months). One study detected statistical difference in the
average scores of suicidal ideation at 6 months, in favour of people receiving DBT,
compared with those allocated to treatment as usual. There was no difference in the outcome
of leaving the study early. For the outcome of interviewer-assessed alcohol free days,
skewed data are reported and tend to favour DBT. When a substance abuse focused DBT
was compared with comprehensive validation therapy plus 12-step substance misuse
programme no clear differences were found for service outcomes or leaving the study early.
In similar fashion DBT is compared with client centred therapy no differences were found
for service outcomes. However, fewer people in the DBT group displayed indicators of
parasuicidal behaviour. There were no differences for outcomes of anxiety and depression
but people who received DBT had less general psychiatric severity than those in the control
group. Finally, this one relevant study reports skewed data for suicidal ideation with
considerably lower scores for people allocated to DBT. When psychoanalytically oriented
partial hospitalization was compared with general psychiatric care the former tended to come
off best. They also observed that people who received treatment in a psychoanalytic
orientated day hospital were less likely to be admitted into inpatient care when measured at
different times. Also, fewer people in psychoanalytically oriented partial hospitalization
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needed day hospital intervention in the 18 months after discharge. In contrast, more people
in the control group took psychotropic medication by the 30 to 36 month follow-up, than
those receiving psychoanalytic treatment. The anxiety and depression scores were generally
lower in the psychoanalytically oriented partial hospitalization group, as were the global
severity scores. The patients receiving psychoanalytic care in a day hospital had better social
improvement and social adjustment, using the SAS-SR at 6 to 12 months, than those in
general psychiatric care, though the rates of attrition were the same
These authors suggest that some of the problems frequently encountered by people
with borderline personality disorder may be amenable to talking/behavioural treatments, but
all therapies remain experimental. The studies are too few and too small to inspire full
confidence in their results, and the findings must be replicated in larger 'real-world' studies.
3. PSYCHODYNAMIC ASPECTS
Different authors have compared Kernberg and Linehan's approaches. In both, the
therapist is strongly committed, even if the attitude of Kernberg is neutral and that of Linehan
rather active with attitudes of reinforcement. The expression of aggressiveness is encouraged
by Kernberg, while Linehan does not encourage it, and is not interested in the here-and-now
of the group, or in group phenomena
Concerning the Therapeutic Community approach, in the hospital milieu, (and also in
half-way institutions), the treatment is carried out in settings where several care-givers
interact. Adshead , in light of the theory of attachment, reported that the hospital milieu
provides security only if care-givers are capable of tolerating, both the external demands of
the system, and the internal demands of patients. He pointed out that therapeutic relationships
between staff and patients are only repetitions and recreations of internal object relations and
that responses from the team to splitting and to projective identification can sometimes be
negative. He indicated that a certain number of negative reactions can be detected through the
patronizing and contemptuous way in which the care-giver may sometimes express
him/herself to the patient. He adds that certain excessive reinforcements of the regulation of
services, for example: the inappropriate use of restriction on movement, may be the result of
this contrary attitude in personnel. He also remarks how the new organization of cost
containment, particularly in the managed-care system, and the interference of insurance
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companies, comes to be added to the conflict between therapist and patient. Finally, he
reminds the problems in the organization of the structure of the unit, such as inadequate
accounting practices, lack of leadership, difficulties in communication and violation of
boundaries, can seriously aggravate the condition of patients.
The program developed in the Francis Dixon Lodge is an example of the above issues.
The patients are generally hospitalized because of their destructive fashion with which they
express their mental pain.
After three weeks of hospitalization, they propose the
psychodynamic formulation which includes predictions on the transferential reactions that we
can expect and that try to cover the self-aggressive behavior (feelings of abandonment, trigger
situation, etc.).They try to create a therapeutic relationship in which the patient feels
sufficiently reassured to explore avenues of new relationships, while allowing him/her access
to the horrors of the past, (which may carry so much negative emotion that they could even
endanger the relationship). In addition, they consider that acting out is an expressive and
defensive function and that even a more self-destructive behavior can be an attempt to avoid
another catastrophe (psychosis, hetero-aggression, etc.), which can be experienced as more
destructive to their own integrity.
These patients, because of their poor self-esteem, do not know how to ask for help in
an appropriate manner, and do so by provoking crises, which causes the therapeutic team to
counter-react. They explain to patients that they must learn to talk about their suicidal
feelings or their ideas of self-mutilation; adding, that they will try to be tolerant, but that they
will also expect them to modify their behavior. And through the whole intervention, they try
to avoid the feeling of omnipotence of the patients when they trigger self-aggressive
activities, giving special attention to phenomena of hostile and envious dependency, by trying
to avoid or to manage negative therapeutic reactions.
Initially, two factors present in the course of treatment in certain psychiatric hospitals
were recognized: "containment", (in Bion's sense ), which builds a feeling of security in the
face of the infantile pain, the rage and the despair frequently re-experienced in the therapeutic
community; and the "structuring the environment" to make it less uncertain, and to facilitate
modifications in the ill-adapted behavior of the patient .
Other factors involved in the efficacy of a therapeutic milieu have been described,
notably: the "support" of whatever the foster patients can personally invest in the treatment
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plan to fight against passiveness; the promotion of the acceptance of the expression of their
pathology, ("validation"), that allows patients to assume their individuality; and the
"implication", the mechanism through which patients are encouraged to interact with their
environment, to escape from passiveness and to collaborate.
These different mechanisms act in a specific fashion for different patients. Thus,
containment can be necessary for borderline patients in an acute phase, confused and
impulsive, but can have a negative effect later. Support can be very useful for depressed or
frightened patients, but may be harmful for borderline patients. And, validation can be very
useful for paranoid and borderline patients, but can be dangerous if they are suicidal patients
In addition, from a psychoanalytical point of view, certain ingredients derived from
theories of relation to the object, of the psychology of the ego, and of the group analysis
represent the quintessence of therapeutic communities and explain their therapeutic effect
with borderline patients.
In following a developmental sequence , several therapeutic ingredients have been
described, of which the first was "the attachment". The theory of attachment shows that if the
link with the mother has not been reassuring, the adult will lack confidence in him/herself,
which is notably the case of certain patients suffering from borderline personality disorder.
The therapeutic community creates a culture in which belonging is highly prized and where
the members themselves are validated, which is reassuring for the patient. But, for an
individual to develop, he/she must be able to confront other complex experiences, of love,
hate, anger, frustration, sadness, attack, defense, comfort, etc., facilitating disillusion
regarding the fantasy of a symbiotic fusion and the early attachment and rendering the patient
capable of « growing up and leaving home ». In this sense, the therapeutic community offers
experiences of inclusion, (a process of derivation and evaluation), and of departure, (rituals of
farewell, etc.).
Another fundamental therapeutic factor of development
is of course the already
mentioned concept of "containment" , which relates to the « mothering element » of these
institutions. But there also exists a « paternal element » extremely important for borderline
patients that consists of establishing limits and rules, and reinforcing boundaries, which
contradict, in a certain fashion, the notion of « permissiveness » demanded in a therapeutic
community.
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Once the therapeutic community has mastered primitive preverbal work with a patient,
a fundamental challenge consists in establishing "communication", in the form of contacts
with other patients and care-givers. This allows them to build mutual understanding through
the use of "symbolic representations" and the process of "identification". To this purpose,
there must exist a "communal identity" which consists in a set of intimate relationships forged
through the participation of all the members in therapeutic, social and informal activities
within a « culture of enquiry ». Groups that are stable and protected with well-defined
boundaries make this process possible.
Another factor specific to therapeutic communities is represented by the compromise
of obliging patients, who accept that all interpersonal interaction belongs to all the members
of the community. Effectively, everything that goes on in the community can be utilized from
a therapeutic point of view, leading then to an inseparable union between « living and
learning » .
On the other hand, there exists, in therapeutic communities, a basic belief according to
which the patient's unconscious is a better judge than the analyst's of the direction therapy
should take. Thus, it emerges that the most important therapeutic effect is brought into being
by the patient, not by the therapist. The lack of symmetry between the therapist and the
patient is accepted, but the automatic assumption of the therapist's superiority is rejected by
most borderline patients. This attitude fosters accountability in patients, who then assume
responsibility for their own therapeutic process, which facilitates its improvement but can also
be a source of ambivalence, for example engendering feelings of guilt.
The majority of severely affected borderline patients have a fragmented internal world,
with disorganization of their identity and of their mental processes. Disorganized institutions
threaten to increase disorganization in their members who, in turn, will disturb the institution.
Effectively, patients project their difficulties onto the community that surrounds them, and
introyect elements of organization into that community. The concept of "internalization of
object relations" is essential in the treatment of borderline patients.
SUMARY
Group therapy is frequently part of a multidimensional programme, including
medication and different types of psychotherapy. The therapeutic groups tend to be
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heterogeneous in composition although the present most popular programs Linehan's
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy and .Bateman´s are homogeneous. The orientation of
groups tends to be eclectic, and although open psychodynamic groups are the most frequent.
Because of these risks of acting out, the therapist must be able to count on a support system to
offer more holding for these kinds of patients, i.e. a hospital unit or a day center.
A few naturalistic studies underline the efficacy of therapeutic community treatment
for patients suffering from borderline personality disorder. In view of the results a personal
research the authors
underscore the need for more naturalistic studies and the we favour eclectic, brief, dynamic, day
hospital approaches with heterogeneous patients as an optimal emergency approach for people
with BPD
The efficacy of sveral therapeutic factors involved in the therapeutic community approach, in the
hospital milieu and in half-way institutions are finally discussed in light of the theory of
attachment,
The authors conclude that the therapeutic community approach should be an antidote
to the trend toward managed care for this kind of patients. Effectively, some borderline
patients with serious symptoms (incompetence, suicidality, dependency) who suffer from a
feeling of profound insecurity will continue to need long-term, intensive therapy.
RESUMEN
La terapia de grupo, junto con la terapia individual, es una herramienta clave en el
trtamiento de los TLP. Esta terapia es frecuentemente parte de un programa multidimensional,
incluyendo la medicación y otras formas de tratamiento. Los grupos terapéuticos tienden a ser
heterogéneos en su composición, aunque los programas más populares en la actualidad, (los
de Linehan, Kernberg y Bateman), son homogéneos. La orientación de los grupos tiende a ser
ecléctica, y aunque los grupos psicodinámicos abiertos son los más frecuentes.
Se han hallado resultados positivos significativos con la terapia cognitivocomportamental de Linehan que combina abordajes grupales e individuales en la resolución
de problemas y en el entrenamiento en habilidades. Esta terapia "dialéctica comportamental",
ha mostrado ser eficaz para la disminución de los índices de suicidio en pacientes con TLP,
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como demuestra un estudio controlado de Linehan en 2006), que comparaba la TDC y el
tratamiento comunitario por expertos.
En general, los abordajes psicoanalíticos están basados en la teoría de las relaciones
objetales. Los trabajos recientes de Bateman y Fonagy muestran resultados favorables con un
tratamiento basado en una psicoterapia dinámica (con una técnica que denominan
"mentalización" ) en un hospital de día. Los comportamientos automutiladores y los intentos
de suicidio decrecieron durante los 18 meses de programa y también disminuyó la estancia
hospitalaria media en contraste con aquellos que habían seguido un tratamiento general.
Una revision reciente de Cochrane, (Blinks et al. 2007) identifica siete estudios que
implican a 262 personas, y con 5 comparaciones distintas. Los autores sugieren que algunos
de los problemas con los que usualmente se enfrentan las personas con un trastorno límite de
la personalidad pueden ser susceptibles de tratamientos verbales/comportamentales. Sin
embargo, todas las terapias continúan siendo de carácter experimental, y los estudios son
demasiado escasos y reducidos para suscitar una plena confianza en sus resultados. Estos
hallazgos requieren replicarse en estudios mayores más semejantes al "mundo real".
No existen estudios controlados acerca de la efectividad de los programas de las
Comunidades Terapéuticas, y la multiplicidad de variables que intervienen en el proceso
terapéutico en estos ambientes hace que este tipo de abordaje sea poco probable. Existen
algunos estudios "naturalísticos" que muestran la eficacia, entre ellos, unos realizado en
Bilbao en que se muestra la eficacia de un programa de día de 50 días, de media de duración
de cuatro horas semanales.
REFERENCES
Bateman, A., & Fonagy, P. (1999). Effectiveness of partial hospitalization in the treatment of
borderline personality disorder: a randomized controlled trial. Am J Psychiatry, 156(10),
1563-1569.
Buie, D. H., & Adler, G. (1982). Definitive treatment of the borderline personality.
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis and Psychotherapy, 9(51-87).
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Revista Internacional On-line / An International On-line Journal
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Revista Internacional On-line / An International On-line Journal
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ASMR Revista Internacional On-line - Dep. Leg. BI-2824-01 - ISSN 1579-3516
CORE Academic, Instituto de Psicoterapia, Manuel Allende 19, 48010 Bilbao (España)
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Avances en Salud Mental Relacional / Advances in relational mental health
Vol.5, núm.3 - Noviembre 2006
Órgano Oficial de expresión de la Fundación OMIE
Revista Internacional On-line / An International On-line Journal
ASMR Revista Internacional On-line - Dep. Leg. BI-2824-01 - ISSN 1579-3516
CORE Academic, Instituto de Psicoterapia, Manuel Allende 19, 48010 Bilbao (España)
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