Transforming Futures: Integrating Lived Experience, Research, and Practice

Dear Colleagues,

We are looking forward with great excitement to welcoming you to Lausanne on the 7-9 September 2026. Our conference theme of Transforming Futures – both those of our clients and of the discipline of personality disorder research and treatment – will provide a broad framework for showcasing the exciting developments in our field since we last met for our previous stimulating congress in Antwerp. We will focus on the challenges and possibilities of timely recognition of personality disorder, at whatever life stage, differential diagnosis from other related conditions, and the delivery of effective interventions to promote recovery beyond symptoms across the life course.

We are keen to hear about innovations in assessment, diagnosis, theoretical understandings, interventions, clinical outcomes and routine practice delivery. Your research may touch on innovative new methodologies involving AI or virtual reality or utilise familiar approaches in new ways. You may have conducted experimental studies to further develop our understanding of the processes that underpin the challenges of people who receive a personality disorder diagnosis. We invite clinicians and researchers from across Europe, and further afield, to join us in Lausanne to share with us how your work contributes to transforming the future of the discipline and the futures of our clients.

We are developing our involvement of Experts by Experience within our work. We encourage all participants in the congress to involve Experts by Experience in their submissions as consultants or co-investigators and to consider inviting them to present alongside you at the conference. All plenary talks will be followed by a short reflective discussion between a person with lived experience, a clinician and a researcher who will share their responses to the themes of each plenary.

You can see details of our exciting array of speakers delivering plenary lectures and pre-conference workshops. We wish you well for the forthcoming year and look forward to discussing your work and sharing new ideas and insights with you in Lausanne.

Prof Michaela Swales
ESSPD President

Preliminary Timeline of the Conference

Abstract Submission open: To be announced

Award Submission open: To be announced

Deadline for Abstract Submission: February 27th 2026

Deadline for Award Submission: March 31st, 2026

Notification of acceptance of submissions: May 1st, 2026

Preliminary Program released: May 15th, 2026

Early Bird Registration ends: May 29th, 2026

8th ESSPD Congress/Borderline congress: 7-9 September , 2026

Time until we meet in Lausanne:

Confirmed Speakers and Workshop Leaders

Click on any image for more details

Babette Renneberg

Professor of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at Freie Universität Berlin (Germany)

Michael Kaess

Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Bern (Switzerland)

Frank Yeomans

Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Weill Cornell Medical College (United States)

Philippe Conus

Professor at the University of Lausanne’s Faculty of Medicine (Switzerland)

Mario Speranza

Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Paris-Saclay – Versailles (France)

Andrew Chanen

Chief of Clinical Practice and Head of Personality Disorder Research at Orygen in Melbourne (Australia)

Stephanie D. Stepp

Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (United States)

Patrick Luyten

Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven (Belgium)

Bo Bach

Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark)