Personality Disorder Treatment: Outpatient and Virtual Care
Living with a personality disorder can mean intense emotions, relationships that keep following the same painful script, and reactions that seem to run ahead of you. These patterns affect the person experiencing these symptoms as well as their loved ones.
If you or someone you care about is dealing with a personality disorder, know that treatment is available and effective.
This page will cover what personality disorders are and the various treatments available to help.
What Are Personality Disorders?
Personality disorders are a group of conditions that involve long-standing patterns of thinking, feeling, and relating to others and oneself that repeatedly cause distress or get in the way of relationships, work, or daily life.[1]
Clinicians recognize ten personality disorders in three clusters:[1]
- Cluster A: These disorders involve patterns that can seem odd or withdrawn and include paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal.
- Cluster B: These disorders consist of intense or unpredictable patterns, including borderline, narcissistic, histrionic, and antisocial personality disorders.
- Cluster C: These disorders have anxious or fearful patterns and include avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders.
These patterns usually form in adolescence or early adulthood. They tend to develop from a mix of temperament, genetics, and experiences such as early trauma, neglect, or an unstable home. A diagnosis isn’t a judgment of your character. It’s a way for your care team to choose the right tools.
Personality Disorder Symptoms
Although each type of personality disorder has its own set of symptoms, there are some common symptoms they share, including the following:[2]
- Your emotions shift fast or feel bigger than the situation calls for.
- Close relationships keep ending in the same kind of conflict or loss.
- Your sense of who you are changes often, or feels empty.
- You act on impulse and regret it afterward.
- You avoid people or opportunities out of fear of rejection or criticism.
- People close to you say your behavior hurts them, and you’re struggling to understand why.
- Work, school, or family life keeps suffering because of these patterns.
If these symptoms sound or feel familiar to you, it could be helpful to reach out to a mental health professional who can assess your symptoms and determine if you may have a personality disorder.
Personality Disorder Treatment Approaches
Various treatment efforts have been found effective for personality disorders, including the following:
Evidence-based therapy. Your clinician will match the therapeutic approach to your individual needs, which may include:
- Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT): skills for managing intense emotions, tolerating distress, communicating clearly, and staying grounded. DBT is a cornerstone of care for borderline personality disorder and for many other emotion-driven patterns.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): identifying and changing the thoughts and habits that keep problems going.
- Psychodynamic therapy: understanding the deeper roots of repeating relationship patterns.
- Emotion-focused and mindfulness-based approaches: building awareness of emotions and the ability to pause before reacting.
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and trauma-focused therapy, when past trauma is part of the picture.
Group therapy. Practicing skills alongside others who understand can ease isolation and make relationship changes feel real.
Psychiatric support. No medication treats personality disorders directly, but a psychiatric provider can evaluate and treat co-occurring symptoms like depression, anxiety, or mood instability.
Family involvement. Loved ones are often hurting too. We work with family members to offer them ways to support someone in treatment, set healthy boundaries, and respond during hard moments.
Is Outpatient Treatment an Option for Personality Disorders?
Yes, outpatient mental health treatment is often the first-line choice when it comes to treating personality disorders.[3] The biggest advantage of outpatient care is that you practice new skills in the same places you need them. You try a coping strategy on Tuesday, face a hard moment at work on Wednesday, and bring it back to your therapist on Thursday. That cycle of practice and feedback is how lasting change happens.
Outpatient care also lets you keep your routines, income, and relationships while you heal, and telehealth removes commuting and scheduling barriers. For most people with personality disorders, structured psychotherapy is the foundation of treatment, and it can be done on an outpatient basis.
Start Outpatient Personality Disorder Treatment at Mission Connection
At Mission Connection, we start by understanding your history, current struggles, and goals. We also screen for conditions that often accompany personality disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and trauma, so nothing is treated in isolation.
Our team of licensed mental health professionals goes beyond traditional treatment and provides life-changing care. We offer several options for effective outpatient treatment, including in-person programs at our locations in California, Virginia, and Washington, virtual telehealth, and a hybrid program that combines in-person and virtual care.
We create a structured care plan for every patient that consists of evidence-based therapies (CBT, DBT, and trauma-informed approaches) and medication management.
Mission Connection is Joint Commission-accredited. We also accept most major insurance providers, so that your recovery is not hindered due to financial issues.
Reach out to us online or call us today at 866-833-1822 to find out how we can support your long-term recovery.
References
- American Psychological Association (APA). (2023, November 15). Personality disorder. APA Dictionary of Psychology. https://dictionary.apa.org/personality-disorder
- Salters-Pedneault, K., PhD. (2025, May 28). What are personality disorders in the dsm-5? Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/personality-disorders-a2-425427
- Katakis, P. et al. (2023). Effectiveness of outpatient and community treatments for people with a diagnosis of 'personality disorder': systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Psychiatry, 23(1), 57.