This past weekend — October 17–19, 2025 — marked the start of the second cohort of the didactic training course in Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP), founded by Otto Kernberg.
We are both creators and witnesses of how the foundation of the TFP community in Ukraine is being built. We now see the beginning of a journey for those who, in a few years, will become certified TFP therapists, and later — supervisors and instructors.
Our impression as organizers: the therapists of this cohort have demonstrated a high level of psychodynamic and clinical competence. The questions they raised and the clinical cases they presented show that future TFP professionals are deeply committed to the profession — inspired, intellectually curious, and genuinely invested in understanding the complexity of mental processes and in their own professional growth.
Next — we share the impressions of a course participant.
The course began with a lecture by Tennyson Lee, FRCPsych (United Kingdom), who challenged participants’ habitual understanding of the psychoanalytic process. From the very first moments, it became clear that this was more than a training session — it was an immersion into a new level of comprehension of psychodynamic work. What once seemed familiar and self-evident acquired new meaning as we viewed the psychotherapeutic process through the lens of the Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) model.
One memorable example was a clinical case through which Dr. Lee illustrated the concept of free associations.
Clinical Case
The patient speaks continuously—sharing stories, details, and events—but everything sounds superficial, as if intended to distract the therapist from something deeper.
Most therapists, faced with such a situation, experience a certain tension but typically think:
- “These are just free associations; I should not intervene—let the patient talk.”
Or: - “I’ll wait for a pause, a moment that feels like permission to comment.”
However, as Tennyson Lee emphasizes, Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) adopts a very different approach. In TFP, such an uninterrupted flow of speech may not represent “free association” in its classical sense but rather a defensive strategy—a way of exerting omnipotent control over the session space and, ultimately, over the therapist.
In this context, the therapist’s task is not to wait passively but to intervene and explore what the patient may be attempting to conceal or avoid through this verbal overflow.
This episode illustrated how Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) enables the therapist to see beyond form to meaning, and how careful attention to the dynamics of transference provides access to the patient’s authentic affective states.
Such moments reveal what makes TFP training distinctive—it not only provides therapeutic techniques but also cultivates a way of thinking grounded in the model itself, allowing participants to perceive the deep structure of the psyche through real therapeutic interaction.
Throughout the course, Tennyson Lee enriched each theoretical block with vivid clinical examples and thoughtful responses to participants’ questions. This interplay between theory and clinical material brought the content to life. TFP emerged not as an abstract theory but as a living system of thought, in which every word, every reaction of therapist and patient carries psychological significance.
Over the three days of didactic training, we explored the following topics in a dynamic and interactive format:
- The nature, aims, and objectives of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP)
- Key Differences with Traditional Psychodynamic Therapy
- Personality and its traits
- Classification systems: ICD-11 and DSM-5 — concepts and principles
- Structural Diagnosis and Levels of Personality Organization
- Structural change and its clinical manifestations
- Relationship Between DSM-5 Personality Disorders and Structural Diagnosis
- The Structural Classification of Personality Disorders by Levels of Severity
- Understanding Split Psychological Structure as the basis for Identity Diffusion
- Object Relationship Interactions: Oscillation and Defence
- Introduction to TFP strategies, tactics, and techniques
- The therapeutic contract: concept, objectives
- Sets treatment frame: Patient and Service responsibilities
- The concepts of transference and countertransference
- The interpretive process: clarification, confrontation, and interpretation
The first module also featured invited lectures by distinguished international experts:
- Mathieu Norton-Poulin, M.A., Psychologist (Canada), delivered a lecture titled “A Diagnostic System Based on Psychological Structure.” This session explored the full spectrum of personality organization and outlined the core characteristics of each level. Participants compared Dr. Otto Kernberg’s structural approach with the DSM-5 framework for defining personality disorders according to diagnostic criteria.
- Orestis Kanter Bax, Consultant in Adult Psychiatry and Medical Psychotherapy, presented a lecture titled “Assessment.” The session addressed the following key themes:
1.The nature of assessment and its understanding within the framework of TFP
2. An object relations approach to clinical evaluation and treatment selection
3. The assessment phase — its aims and function
4. Three channels of communication: verbal, non-verbal, and countertransference
5. Dr. Otto Kernberg’s Structural Interview — overview and core elements
6. The Structured Interview of Personality Organization (STIPO) — overview and essential aspects
Beyond the theoretical components, the true value of the first module lay in the clinical case discussions presented by participants. These sessions demonstrated how the principles of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy (TFP) operate in real clinical practice—particularly in situations involving resistance, projective identification, and oscillations between idealization and devaluation.
Equally significant were the role-play exercises, which allowed participants to experience both therapeutic and patient positions. This format fostered a deeper understanding of the internal dynamics of the session, enhanced emotional engagement, and offered a unique view “from within” of how interpretation emerges in the therapeutic process.
(c) Yuliia Holopiorova,
Ukrainian Association of Transference-Focused Psychotherapy