Metalization-Based Therapy
Founded by Anthony Bateman and Peter Fonagy MBT is a type of psychotherapy specifically aimed to treat individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder, a link to a previous post explaining this disorder will be at the bottom, I recommend checking that out beforehand for context.
Typically, individuals with BPD struggle with impulsive behaviour, unstable realisation and the ability to realise the impact their actions may have on themselves and others as well as recognising faulty thinking patterns. Therefore, MBT aims to tackle this by better enabling individuals to better understand their thinking patterns, their emotions and how to empathise with others, thus giving them better mentalization (in short).
Mentalization is referred to as being the ability to understand our emotions and behaviour and how they can relate to the mental states in ourselves and others. MBT aims to achieve this by equipping its patients with the skills to take a pause when encountering a strong feeling or a difficult situation, and taking time to evaluate the situation and think about their reaction.
MBT is largely based on attachment theory. Individuals with BPD are believed to have an insecure disorganised attachment type (where they jump between wanting love and comfort and avoiding it). Adopting a better capacity to mentalize would enable these individuals to regulate their behaviour and balance our their own emotions rather than it impacting their relationships.
This therapist will encourage their client to recall recent events that have occurred in their lives and to reflect on them- what they thought, how they felt, how they reacted. Vocalising this will enable the client to better understand how their mind works, and where they may be having unhelpful thoughts that are not based on rationality- this way, they can better evaluate when they make misjudgements. This can also be done in group therapy where individuals will share a scenario in their own lives that they may have reacted to in an undesirable manner, they will then be able to understand their emotions and what caused them to feel that way, uncovering repressed feelings. If the individual is having trouble mentalizing the group can help to provide a rational explanation for the feeling, helping both the individual and the rest of the group to evaluate their own minds.
Research has accumulated to show that this therapy is highly successful despite its lack of popularity. Peter Fonagy is currently conducting a study on the effect mentalization has on offending male adults, to see if the adaption of this skill could lesson their violent behaviour.