Therapy can be extremely helpful to individuals with avoidant personality disorder because the relationship with the therapist can help the person build the self-confidence they need in other types of relationships. Often people who have avoidant personality disorder find it easier to relate to a therapist than to an ordinary person because they can distance themselves from the therapist by seeing them as a “doctor”. Also, the therapeutic relationship is prescribed, e.g., 50 minutes once a week or whatever and the therapist generally gets paid for their services. Boundaries such as these are much easier for an individual with avoidant personality disorder than a more open-ended kind of relationship. As with all the personality disorders, therapy for people with avoidant personality disorder is lengthy. The main things that can derail the therapy that therapists should stay on the lookout for are 1) if the client never adequately attaches to the therapist or 2) if the client does attach to the therapist but is not able to transfer those feelings of safety to other relationships.