Self-nurturing: A cognitive behavioral treatment approach for the borderline client

Self-nurturing is a cognitive behavioral treatment approach specifically developed and used in clinical work with borderline clients. The client is taught to recognize and differentiate both the underdeveloped reality ego and developmentally arrested child components of the spilt-ego structure by their affective and behavioral characteristics. The therapist systematically lends ego strengths to the underdeveloped reality ego which is utilized as the good enough parent to re-parent the child ego state. The reality ego is strengthened in the process and the client's maladaptive behaviors dramatically decrease.