Compassionate Diagnosis: From 'Disorder' to Emotional Healing

The Counseling profession aims to shift perceptions of mental health from a pathological view to a wellness, or whole person orientation. Counselors may be conflicted when applying a wellness orientation to certain clinical diagnoses, personality disorders in particular. Improved client care means conceptualizing complex mental health concerns with increased flexibility, compassion, and more accurate root causes that ensure treatment is able to meet clients where they are, as well as provide hope for release from persistent patterns of functioning which are not fixed anchors of personality. Counseling diagnosis and treatment evaluations of underlying complex trauma (C-PTSD) patterns may present as fixed personality traits, falsely leading to a personality disorder diagnosis with poor prognosis. Research has pointed to substantial similarities in self and interpersonal problems between the two diagnoses, however C-PTSD has less clinical relevance and may be ruled out in briefer models of therapy due to the intricacies of diagnosis (Felding, 2021). This proposal aims to outline an enhanced framework for client care with individuals diagnosed with histrionic personality disorder. By exploring the literature of histrionic personality disorder and complex trauma, there is evidently space for revitalized treatment by exploring patterns of self and interpersonal development that are flexible and able to foster resilience through stress (antifragility). Patterns of early childhood emotional/physical abuse and neglect lead to external “fixed” personality traits of external validation seeking, emotional volatility, low frustration tolerance, and more. Due to current medicalization and pathologization of symptoms, there is a lack of research into alternative models of personality disorders that promote change. Authentically exploring the human experience of unprocessed emotional wounds through counseling has the ability to cultivate deeper client connections and expand client care from diagnosis to treatment.