{"id":12140,"date":"2024-01-09T07:51:09","date_gmt":"2024-01-09T07:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/integratebpd.com\/?p=12140"},"modified":"2024-01-09T07:51:11","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T07:51:11","slug":"what-is-reality-integration-therapy-rit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/integratebpd.com\/what-is-reality-integration-therapy-rit\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Reality Integration Therapy\u2122 (RIT)?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Authors: Ashley J. Zahabian, Sarah Phillips<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reality Integration Therapy\u2122 (RIT)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Reality Integration Therapy\u2122 is a new therapeutic technique developed by Ashley Zahabian for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in 2022.\u00a0 As someone who formerly suffered from BPD, Zahabian felt strongly about creating a therapeutic technique based on her own personal experiences and how she was able to work through the disorder.\u00a0 Viewing BPD as a \u201cpersonal reality disorder,\u201d Zahabian realized how the split between her personal reality and actual reality was causing her symptoms and perpetuating the disorder. With constant reality-testing, she was able to integrate into actual reality and overcome the illness.\u00a0 Thus, Reality Integration Therapy\u2122 was born!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Zahabian spent three years delving into psychoanalytic literature to find answers. Through inspiration by the works of Klein and Kernberg, Zahabian began to understand BPD differently. Reality Integration Therapy\u2122 is founded on the idea that BPD is a result of prolonged, narcissistic abuse in childhood, which creates disruption and dysfunction in one\u2019s ability to develop whole object relations<\/em><\/strong> <\/strong>\u2013 the capacity to see oneself and other people in a realistic, stable, and integrated way \u2013 for the good and bad segments (Klein, 1921). As a defense mechanism against the prolonged narcissistic abuse, the child generates their own fantasy world, preventing them from interacting with their painful reality. Zahabian agrees with Kernberg\u2019s (1985) suggestion that those presenting with narcissistic personality structures have an underlying borderline personality organization, and she also suggests the opposite holds true \u2013 those with borderline personality structures have an underlying narcissistic personality organization<\/strong>. Internalizing the abuser\u2019s behaviors, the person with BPD unknowingly becomes their own abuser. <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Narcissistic abuse is a specific kind of maltreatment in which the abuser is focused purely on themselves at the expense of others (Howard, 2019), causing the abused individual to feel unseen. When this happens during the developmental years (i.e. childhood), it disrupts the development of healthy and whole object relations. Below are some examples of how this abuse leads to the development of specific symptoms of BPD (5th ed., text rev.; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, American Psychological Association, 2022):<\/p>\n\n\n\n Current therapies for BPD tend to begin in the present, focusing on symptom management, while Reality Integration Therapy\u2122 begins in the past in order to address the root cause of the disorder \u2013 undeveloped object relations<\/em>. Reality Integration Therapy\u2122 aims to identify when and how one\u2019s object relations became disordered. After this moment is pinpointed, the individual learns how their narcissistic trauma created a split between reality and fantasy, and how their personality (personal reality) was formed from that split. The individual\u2019s fantasy, however, feels completely real to them; so rather than rejecting it, Reality Integration Therapy\u2122 encourages the user to acknowledge it then slowly grieve it. Once a person grieves and lets go of what they formerly believed to be real, actual reality is integrated. Their personality then roots itself in reality, which alleviates symptoms of the disorder, rendering no need for symptom management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reality Integration Therapy\u2122 consists of three phases:<\/p>\n\n\n\n While psychoanalysis based in object relations theory is not new, Reality Integration Therapy\u2122 is novel in that it is currently the only object relations therapeutic technique that does not require a licensed therapist, and is also the only self-paced therapeutic program that focuses on how BPD has roots in object relations theory. It includes eight self-paced modules, an optional 60-90 minute weekly lecture, and optional involvement in an online community of individuals who are all working through Reality Integration Therapy\u2122. Zahabian believes through the education and support provided with Reality Integration Therapy\u2122, BPD does not have to endure for one\u2019s entire lifespan \u2013 and she speaks from experience. A childhood disruption in object relations can<\/em> be restored in adulthood, and Reality Integration Therapy\u2122 is making that possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Authors: Ashley J. Zahabian, Sarah Phillips Reality Integration Therapy\u2122 (RIT) Reality Integration Therapy\u2122 is a new therapeutic technique developed by Ashley Zahabian for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in 2022.\u00a0 As someone who formerly suffered from BPD, Zahabian felt strongly about creating a therapeutic technique based on her own personal experiences and how she was able […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/integratebpd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/integratebpd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/integratebpd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integratebpd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integratebpd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/integratebpd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12141,"href":"https:\/\/integratebpd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12140\/revisions\/12141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/integratebpd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integratebpd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integratebpd.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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