Introduction
I currently work as a self-harm practitioner in a multidisciplinary community team which provides treatment for people who self-harm and have diagnoses of personality disorder. In my current role I have opportunities to work therapeutically with patients both on an individual basis and in groups. I enjoy being part of this multidisciplinary team and participating in the experiential group. Coupled with knowledge of theoretical concepts and frameworks I feel that this has greatly increased my understanding of what it is to be a member of a work group. In groups we have to be aware of other people, we have to compromise and abandon our own egocentric needs in order to maintain our place in the group, but at the same time group membership …show more content…
The impact our patients have on our work group is significant, particularly when working within a self-harm and personality disorder service. Within my work group we are confronted each day with the threat and reality of suffering and death (Menzies, 1992). The patient group with whom I now work is a patient group that I feel I previously misunderstood. On reflection, in previous jobs I often perceived patients with a diagnosis of personality disorder as being consciously and maliciously destructive and manipulative (Gabbard, 1989). I believe this was closely linked to difficult dynamics within work groups, with conflict amongst staff stemming from differing opinions of the patients. I now recognise this as the patients unconscious defence mechanism of splitting. Although I have experienced that patients with borderline personality disorder do have an uncanny ability to detect preexisting conflict among various staff members (Gabbard, 1989). While I enjoy working with a multidisciplinary team who understands these theoretical concepts, it is important to remain focused on them when working with such challenging patients. Despite theoretical knowledge, when under the impact of patients’ disturbed communications and explosive actions, intense emotion is stirred up within the staff group and in each individual staff member (Gordon, 1994). If not managed correctly, this can lead to a significant increase in anxiety within the team, with anxiety being transmitted along a chain of interaction through the process of projection and introjection (Hirschhorn, 1990). While working with patients with diagnoses of personality disorder as part of my work group has been rewarding I have also found it to be
I currently work as a self-harm practitioner in a multidisciplinary community team which provides treatment for people who self-harm and have diagnoses of personality disorder. In my current role I have opportunities to work therapeutically with patients both on an individual basis and in groups. I enjoy being part of this multidisciplinary team and participating in the experiential group. Coupled with knowledge of theoretical concepts and frameworks I feel that this has greatly increased my understanding of what it is to be a member of a work group. In groups we have to be aware of other people, we have to compromise and abandon our own egocentric needs in order to maintain our place in the group, but at the same time group membership …show more content…
The impact our patients have on our work group is significant, particularly when working within a self-harm and personality disorder service. Within my work group we are confronted each day with the threat and reality of suffering and death (Menzies, 1992). The patient group with whom I now work is a patient group that I feel I previously misunderstood. On reflection, in previous jobs I often perceived patients with a diagnosis of personality disorder as being consciously and maliciously destructive and manipulative (Gabbard, 1989). I believe this was closely linked to difficult dynamics within work groups, with conflict amongst staff stemming from differing opinions of the patients. I now recognise this as the patients unconscious defence mechanism of splitting. Although I have experienced that patients with borderline personality disorder do have an uncanny ability to detect preexisting conflict among various staff members (Gabbard, 1989). While I enjoy working with a multidisciplinary team who understands these theoretical concepts, it is important to remain focused on them when working with such challenging patients. Despite theoretical knowledge, when under the impact of patients’ disturbed communications and explosive actions, intense emotion is stirred up within the staff group and in each individual staff member (Gordon, 1994). If not managed correctly, this can lead to a significant increase in anxiety within the team, with anxiety being transmitted along a chain of interaction through the process of projection and introjection (Hirschhorn, 1990). While working with patients with diagnoses of personality disorder as part of my work group has been rewarding I have also found it to be