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David Allen M.D.

David M. Allen is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and was the Director of Psychiatric Residency Training at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis for 16 years. He received his medical degree from U.C. San Francisco, and did his psychiatric residency at the Los Angeles County - University of Southern California Medical Center. While at UT, he supervised psychotherapy training for both psychiatry residents and psychology interns, and ran the psychotherapy seminar for the residents. The seminar was described in a journal article in Academic Psychiatry. He has done research into personality disorders and is a psychotherapy theorist. He is the author of three books about integrated psychotherapy: A Family Systems Approach to Individual Psychotherapy, Deciphering Motivation in Psychotherapy, and Psychotherapy with Borderline Patients: an Integrated Approach, as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters. He is also the author of the self-help book, Coping with Critical, Demanding, and Dysfunctional Parents.  He is a former associate editor of the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration and treasurer for the Association for Research in Personality Disorders. Over his career, he has practiced psychotherapy in a variety of clinical settings including private and academic practice and at a VA hospital. His psychotherapy model has particular applications in the treatment of borderline personality disorder.

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Treating Personality Disorders Using a Systems Approach in Individual Psychotherapy (3 CEs) 
Saturday, February 14, 2026 at 4:00 PM - 7:15 PM UTC
David Allen M.D.
$69
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Most studies of the background of clients diagnosed with personality disorders shows a high percentage of subjects have a history of child abuse, invalidation, or other features of family dysfunction. However, most therapy models do not deal directly with current family interactions, which often trigger and reinforce repetitive dysfunctional behavior throughout the client’s adulthood. The psychotherapy outcome literature shows mainly that current models of psychotherapy helping with symptoms of different disorders, but do little for the clients  problemswith love, work, and play.

This seminar will describe systemic factors over several generations that result in the formation and maintenance of personality disorders, elucidating the family dynamics of many of them. It will then focus on how therapists can get the full family history from reluctant clients while handling clients who come in with hostility or acting out with the therapist. We will then look at strategies for altering the family relationships teaching clients how to enact them through the use of role playing and role reversal. Last, it will discuss how clients can handle family relapses into old patterns.

session: 12315
Treating Personality Disorders Using a Systems Approach in Individual Psychotherapy (3 CEs) 
Saturday, April 25, 2026 at 4:00 PM - 7:15 AM UTC
David Allen M.D.
$69
View Brochure

Most studies of the background of clients diagnosed with personality disorders shows a high percentage of subjects have a history of child abuse, invalidation, or other features of family dysfunction. However, most therapy models do not deal directly with current family interactions, which often trigger and reinforce repetitive dysfunctional behavior throughout the client’s adulthood. The psychotherapy outcome literature shows mainly that current models of psychotherapy helping with symptoms of different disorders, but do little for the clients  problemswith love, work, and play.

This seminar will describe systemic factors over several generations that result in the formation and maintenance of personality disorders, elucidating the family dynamics of many of them. It will then focus on how therapists can get the full family history from reluctant clients while handling clients who come in with hostility or acting out with the therapist. We will then look at strategies for altering the family relationships teaching clients how to enact them through the use of role playing and role reversal. Last, it will discuss how clients can handle family relapses into old patterns.

session: 12316