Borderline Personality Disorder Therapy
Helping you build a life worth living
Are you struggling with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) symptoms, such as emotional dysregulation, chaotic relationships and suicidal thinking? Are you struggling to maintain strong, long-term friendships? Are your family relationships strained and constantly plagued by fights and arguments? Are you feeling ‘on edge’ and worried that people will leave you for your faults?
Living with Borderline Personality Disorder is exhausting and very difficult at times. It affects people in very different ways, but usually involves daily emotional ups and downs that feel like a rollercoaster. To manage this emotional dysregulation, you may have found that you have resorted to dangerous or ineffective coping strategies such as drinking, recreational drug use, self-harm or oversleeping/overeating. You may find yourself hopeless at times, wondering if you’ll ever be able to get a break from the long-lasting and painful emotional experiences.
What exactly is BPD?
Borderline Personality Disorder is a mental health diagnosis for those who have specific traits and behaviours that rooted in their personality, mainly, an unstable sense of self and interpersonal difficulties. People with BPD often have a poor self-image, are unable to direct themselves, have damaging or harmful behaviours directed towards themselves, intense and quickly changing moods, chronic feelings of emptiness or anger, and paranoid thoughts when stressed. They often complain of dissociation (a sense of disconnection from the body) that is triggered by high points of stress.
Due in part to the confused sense of self and rapidly changing mood states, people living with BPD find their relationships are often in a state of conflict and unease. BPD most often includes an intense fear of abandonment, which causes them to take considerable action to try to prevent their loved ones from leaving them. The person often swings from idealizing their friends/family to being hyper-critical and hateful towards them. Many people describe their relationships as being nothing short as “intense”.
What does therapy for BPD look like?
Borderline Personality Disorder is usually treated with a course of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy with helps with client in four distinct areas:
DISTRESS TOLERANCE: The person learns and practices healthier, better ways to manage intense emotional states. The goal of distress tolerance training is to replace unhelpful and harmful ways of reacting to negative emotions with effective tools that don’t make the situation worse over time.
EMOTION REGULATION: The person learns how to track, predict and reduce negative emotional states. By better understanding their own triggers and working to reduce the things that can make them more vulnerable to negative emotions and destructive behaviours (such as hunger and little sleep), they learn to prevent high intensity emotions. They also learn how to create and embrace more positive mood states through pleasant activities and hobbies that build mastery and a better sense of self.
INTERPERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS: Part of the DBT is dedicated to discovering and maintaining positive relationships with others. The person learns to identify what they want and need from others and learns effective tools for getting their needs met. They learn to notice and mitigate what gets in their way of having stable relationships at work and at home.
MINDFULNESS: Mindfulness training is an important step in helping the person be more open, willing, and compassionate towards their own inner world. They practice non-attachment to thoughts and feelings and to withhold judgment from life’s painful experiences.
How will my life look different?
Borderline Personality Disorder is not easy to live with. You may feel alone and out of control. Much of this is related to not having the right tools and skill set to navigate the painful experiences you have endured. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy is the gold standard for helping people with BPD, and backed by research to help people feel less suicidal, feel more regulated, and have stronger relationships.
Borderline Personality Disorder does not have to define you. Emotions are temporary states and you can learn to not let them destroy you.
Therapy for BPD at Brookhaven
Our clinicians are heavily trained and practiced in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy skills. Although we do not offer a comprehensive DBT program, we do offer individualized skills training that is DBT informed. Many of our clinicians have practiced on DBT consultation teams and are well versed in DBT principles. Consult with us today to see if you would benefit from our Borderline Personality Disorder therapy.
Start Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder with us Today!
Check out these resources:
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Living Under the Same Roof as Someone with BPD
Living with someone with BPD is not always easy. Find out how to live a fulfilling, harmonious life.
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The 'Favourite Person' phenomena in BPD
A well-documented trait of BPD is having one intense, centre-of-the-universe relationship - otherwise known as ‘favourite person’. Let’s dive into why this phenomena happens and what to do about it.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Borderline personality disorder symptoms include intense, rapidly shifting emotions, an unstable sense of self, chronic emptiness, and fear of abandonment. Relationships can feel like a roller coaster, sometimes close and sometimes conflict-ridden, and many people describe their emotional life as a burden to carry. Some also experience dissociation — a sense of disconnection from the body — during periods of high stress. If this resonates, borderline personality disorder counselling can help you build the tools to steady those emotional waves.
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DBT is a therapy used to treat BPD by teaching practical skills to help manage intense emotions, reduce harmful coping, and foster stable relationships. It is the most studied approach for BPD and has been found to reduce feelings of overwhelm, improve regulation, and strengthen connections with others. At Brookhaven, we offer individualized, DBT-informed skills training rather than a comprehensive DBT program—many of our clinicians have worked on DBT consultation teams and are well-versed in its principles.
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Emotion regulation and distress tolerance are two core skill areas in DBT, and they address different challenges. Emotion regulation therapy helps you track, predict, and gradually reduce intense emotional states by understanding your triggers and reducing factors — like poor sleep or hunger — that leave you more vulnerable. Distress tolerance therapy, meanwhile, gives you healthier ways to get through painful moments without resorting to coping strategies that make things worse over time. Together, they help replace overwhelming reactions with tools that actually steady you.
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Yes — people with BPD can absolutely live fulfilling, meaningful lives, especially with the right skills and support. Much of the pain of BPD stems from not yet having the tools to navigate intense emotions, and those tools can genuinely be learned. As DBT puts it, emotions are temporary states, and you can learn not to let them define or destroy you. With BPD treatment in Ontario that builds these skills over time, many people find real stability, steadier relationships, and a stronger sense of self.
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Learning and embedding DBT skills typically takes time, as the aim is to develop skills that will last a lifetime, not just a quick fix. The length depends on the individual, their goals, and how the work fits into their situation. Skills are developed over weeks and months so they become second nature in real situations. Whether in person or through online BPD therapy in Ontario, your therapist will create a realistic, patient plan based on where you are.
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Yes — therapy directly addresses the intense, unstable relationships that so often accompany BPD, as interpersonal difficulty is one of its most painful features. Interpersonal effectiveness, another core DBT skill area, helps you identify what you need from others and ask for it in ways that strengthen rather than strain your connections. Therapy for unstable relationships also helps you notice patterns—such as swinging between idealizing and criticizing someone—that quietly get in the way. Over time, relationships can start to feel steadier and less frightening.
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If you're searching for “DBT therapist near me,” we have clinicians well-versed in DBT skills across Burlington, Milton, Oakville, and London, plus virtual sessions throughout Ontario. Please note that we don't offer a full DBT program. Instead, we provide individual, DBT-informed skills training that may be a good fit for you. Feel free to read our therapists' bios and select a good fit, or contact us and we'll help you match up. If you are in distress or thinking about suicide, please also contact 9-8-8, Canada's suicide crisis helpline, 24 hours a day, by call or text.