Free Paper ISSPD Congress 2023

Training of specific skills for therapists who work with BPD: Learning experience of a Digital Training Platform: HAP (Applied Psychotherapeutic Skills)    (17679)

Candice Fischer 1 , Sebastián Opazo 1 , Stephanie Vaccarezza 1 , Paula Errázuriz 1
  1. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Macul, SANTIAGO, Chile

The process of training psychotherapists involves significant challenges. This is particularly true in a reality like the Chilean professional space, where practitioners often face complex clinical cases with limited resources. Although therapists are taught extensive theoretical frameworks, few learning interventions focus on actually bridging theory and practice. Access to psychotherapy in real time, with real patients, within a learning environment is scarce, expensive, and it entails problems with confidentiality. Moreover, the available multimedia resources that illustrate clinical practice in Spanish are little to none, which leaves trainers with a narrow set of options, usually more theoretical than practical. HAP ("Applied Psychotherapeutic Skills" in Spanish) is a digital platform released in 2022 with the purpose of tackling some of these challenges. The project includes nine full-length psychotherapy sessions with simulated patients, interviews with therapists and actors, and content modules illustrating some core psychotherapy concepts and techniques. HAP was made available through an open-access website (hap.psiconecta.cl), where mental health professionals and students can register for free. As part of the available materials, the platform includes the simulated treatment of "Pilar", an adult patient diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). The current presentation will focus on some of the benefits that HAP as a tool has shown when helping therapists develop basic therapeutic skills to treat BPD patients. Specifically, we will present the results of two studies: first, a study that evaluated the learning experience using HAP with 84 students in their last year of Clinical Psychology training in Chile; second, a study that examined the perspectives of 32 professors of Clinical Psychology in Chile using HAP to teach risk evaluation and the development of a security plan.