Borderline Personality Traits & Symptoms

Understanding Attachment Trauma and BPD Traits

BPD traits often stem from attachment trauma associated with early experiences where caregivers were inconsistent, emotionally unavailable, critical, or otherwise unable to meet your emotional needs. These experiences shape your nervous system and relational patterns, sometimes leading to symptoms associated with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) or BPD traits.

You might notice:

  • Intense fear of abandonment or rejection

  • Emotional dysregulation and rapid mood shifts

  • Impulsivity or difficulty managing urges

  • Chronic feelings of emptiness or identity confusion

  • Difficulty trusting or maintaining stable relationships

  • Self critical thoughts or harsh inner dialogue

  • Strong sensitivity to perceived criticism or invalidation

These patterns are not your fault, they are adaptive responses your system developed to survive overwhelming relational environments. Therapy helps you understand these patterns, regulate emotions, and build safer relational and self experiences.

My Approach

I use an integrative, trauma-informed approach that combines attachment-focused therapy with practical skills for emotional regulation and relational repair:

  • Attachment-based therapy to explore how early relational experiences shaped current patterns

  • Trauma-informed counselling to safely process relational wounds

  • Somatic therapy to notice and regulate body based responses to fear, anger, or emotional overwhelm

  • DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) to build skills in emotional regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, and interpersonal effectiveness

  • Relational repair within therapy to experience consistent, attuned connection and safety

  • Parts-informed work to support younger parts of you that learned to protect, adapt, or withdraw

Who This work is for

You may benefit from this type of therapy if you:

  • Experience intense emotions or mood swings that feel overwhelming

  • Fear abandonment or struggle with trust in relationships

  • Have difficulty regulating anger, anxiety, or sadness

  • Engage in self-criticism or self-sabotaging behaviors

  • Feel chronic emptiness, identity confusion, or low self-worth

  • Struggle with impulsivity, overfunctioning, or emotional reactivity

  • Have relational patterns that feel “chaotic” or hard to sustain

Therapy is a safe space to explore these experiences without shame or judgment, and to learn new ways of relating to yourself and others.

In sessions, we work collaboratively to explore both your emotional experience and relational patterns. Sessions may include:

  • Tracking emotional triggers and body based responses

  • Learning DBT skills for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and relational effectiveness

  • Somatic exercises to soothe the nervous system and create bodily safety

  • Exploring early attachment experiences and their impact on current relationships

  • Creating new relational experiences in therapy that feel attuned, safe, and reparative

This work is gentle, paced to your comfort, and focuses on strengthening your ability to manage intense emotions, navigate relationships, and develop a more stable sense of self.

What To expect in session