Mentalization-Based Treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder: Practical Guide for Therapists | Improve Emotional Regulation & Relationship Skills in Clinical Practice

Mentalization Based Therapy in clinical trials has such a long history of successfully treating individuals with BPD and currently clinical trials are finding it to be successful with Schizophrenia and Narcissistic Personalities.When I was in grad school I was originally trained in DBT. However, my clients would often inform me that they had been in DBT treatment for over 10+ years and that their quality of life was still miserable. They all used to report to me that they now know how to engage in stabilizing skills such a deep breathing and exercise, but they still could not make sense of how their parents could have been so neglectful and abusive towards them. Furthermore, they reported that being unable to think about their parent's intentions kept them fixated in a position of perpetual suffering and emotional pain. These comments by my clients prompted me to learn Mentalization. I feel this book was absolutely ideal for teaching the principles of this approach. Unlike other manuals such as the one for Emotion Focused Therapy, it doesn't take forever to get to the point (EFT manuals can usually explain a concept in 2 sentences however they choose to take 20+ pages of talking in circles). This MBT manual seems to be precise and explains concepts in a reader friendly manner. And YES, most of my BPD clients are now reporting a much greater quality of life, and I couldn't be happier for them.Another thing that was unexpected, was that in my 2018-2020 published qualitative study on Korean American mental health, I found that the biggest theme that emerged as a mechanism of change was mentalization. Korean American clients reported that when they were able to think about how their parents treated them based on their parents having a emotionally painful past (having survived wars, genocides, residing in a 3rd world country), they were able to not only forgive their dismissive and cold parents but also resume a fixated psychological development. 6 out of 8 of these participants reported this theme.