Our mentalization-based treatment (MBT) service is part of the support available for people with complex emotional and relational needs. We cover the whole of Pennine Care's patch.
What is mentalizing
Mentalizing is something we do with our minds to work out what we or others are feeling, thinking, or believing, and how this affects our behaviour. We can mentalize about ourselves, others and our relationships.
Mentalizing is important because it helps us make sense of ourselves and other people. It helps us cope with painful feelings and thoughts. It reduces the risk of doing things impulsively which might be harmful. It helps us to have improved relationships.
About the treatment
Mentalization-based treatment may be helpful if you want to better understand your own and other peoples’ minds and what causes you to act and feel as you do. It can help you to develop and maintain more satisfying relationships, and to find new ways of understanding and coping with your emotions so that you feel more resilient.
The treatment involves:
- Assessment – meeting with a therapist to think about why it might be helpful for you, and any concerns you have about joining a group.
- Introductory group (MBTi) - over 10–12 weeks this group focuses on learning about what mentalizing is.
- Individual review – following the introductory group, you would be invited to attend a review to talk about your experiences. This includes thinking about if it is helpful for you to continue into the full MBT treatment.
- Mentalization-based treatment (MBT) – treatment involves attending weekly individual and group therapy sessions for 12 months.
- Ending phase – during the final six months you will have three sessions to use if and when you choose, to support your ongoing mentalizing and plan your recovery. At the end of this six months, you will be offered a goodbye session.
This evidence-based treatment can help if you have significant, longstanding and wide-ranging difficulties with all of the following:
- Making and sustaining healthy relationships;
- Managing emotions and mood;
- Impulsivity (managing urges to act quickly);
- Self-harm and suicidal thoughts;
- Your sense of identity (not feeling you know who you are).
Mentalization-based treatment can help if you are interested in understanding your own mind, as well as being curious about the minds of others.
To be referred, you need to be working with the community mental health team.
The introductory group involves information and resources to learn about mentalizing.
The 12 month group gives an opportunity to practice mentalizing together as a group by developing safe relationships, rather than directly teaching skills like dialectical behaviour therapy and structured clinical management.
Group members will be supported to discuss recent experiences and difficulties to mentalize together in the group.
Group members are also expected to think about and practice mentalizing outside of the group.
Good mentalizing is:
- Being curious
- Exploring and accepting our own and others’ thoughts and emotions
- Not assuming
- Knowing we can’t mind-read
- Checking things out
- Asking questions
- Welcoming others’ perspective
- Not being fixed in our views