What Happens When You Diagnose A 14-Year-Old With BPD? | Teenage BPD Expert Professor Joost Hutsebaut

What if the label everyone's afraid to give a teenager is the one thing that could save their future?

Professor Joost Hutsebaut has spent a career working with young people on the edge of a diagnosis most clinicians won't touch: borderline personality disorder (BPD).

In this episode, Joost explains why he wrote a paper called The Diagnosis That Should Speak Its Name, arguing it's ethically right to diagnose personality disorders in teens. We dig into where a "difficult personality" ends and a disorder begins, the real risks of stigma versus the risks of staying silent, and how his own philosophy - "make therapy simple again" - reshaped the way he practices. He also honestly answers some of the internet's most asked questions.

Whether you're a clinician, a parent, or someone who's ever been told to "wait and see," this conversation reframes early diagnosis as an act of hope, not a life sentence.

🌱 Have questions, stories, or something you’d like us to cover? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at bpddiariespodcast@gmail.com and let’s keep the conversation going.

🎧 Looking for meditations made for emotional regulation, BPD, and more? Check out Empowered Heroes Meditations on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify.

If you’d like more support in your journey toward BPD recovery, Steff offers 1:1 sessions using evidence-based tools from DBT, Schema Therapy, and Mindfulness to help you heal. Email for a free 30-Minute Consultation:

📩 steff@bpdsupport.org or check out the website: www.bpdsupport.org

📚 Referenced Research Includes:

Bomhof, C., Löffler, J. P., Brugman, S., Lodder, P., van den End, A., van Dijk, M. K., ... & Hutsebaut, J. (2025). The effectiveness of generalist (GIT-PD) versus specialist treatment (MBT/ST) for severe personality disorders (Personality Disorders Access to Effective Treatment, P-DAET): study protocol of a pragmatic randomised controlled non-inferiority multicentre trial. BMC psychiatry, 25(1), 1107. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-025-07550-4

Clarke, S. L., Soons, N., Videler, A. C., van Alphen, S. P., Van, H., Dil, L., ... & Hutsebaut, J. (2025). The progress in the field of clinical staging for mental disorders within the last decade: an updated systematic review. Frontiers in psychiatry, 15, 1473051.https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1473051

Hutsebaut, J. (2020). Make therapy simple again. Tijdschrift voor Psychotherapie, 46(2), 96-106.

Hutsebaut, J., Clarke, S. L., & Chanen, A. M. (2023). The diagnosis that should speak its name: why it is ethically right to diagnose and treat personality disorder during adolescence. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14, 1130417. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1130417

Hutsebaut, J., Willemsen, E., Bachrach, N., & Van, R. (2020). Improving access to and effectiveness of mental health care for personality disorders: the guideline-informed treatment for personality disorders (GIT-PD) initiative in the Netherlands. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, 7(1), 16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40479-020-00133-7

Remeeus, M. G., Clarke, S. L., Feenstra, D. J., Van Eeren, H., Smits, M. L., Debruyne, S., ... & Hutsebaut, J. (2024). The (cost-) effectiveness of early intervention (MBT-early) versus standard protocolized treatment (CBT) for emerging borderline personality disorder in adolescents (the EARLY study): a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials, 25(1), 261.https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-024-08095-9

Renneberg, B., Hutsebaut, J., Berens, A., De Panfilis, C., Bertsch, K., Kaera, A., ... & 30 experts with lived experience–clients, relatives, significant others-from 10 European countries. (2024). Towards an informed research agenda for the field of personality disorders by experts with lived and living experience and researchers. Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation, 11(1), 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40479-024-00257-0