Mentalizing-based Treatment (MBT)

Mentalizing is a way to see ourselves from the outside and see others from the inside. The ability helps you to recognize or “tune in” to one’s own thoughts and feelings and to have the capacity to read the emotional language of others. Many mental illnesses are a disorder of mentalizing, a skill that is essential to healthy relationships and regulation of emotions.

Persons who can mentalize in the face of trauma–including childhood trauma–are less vulnerable to psychiatric disorders.

Menninger clinicians are developing scientifically proven mentalizing treatment protocols that can be adopted and used throughout the mental health community.

Mentalizing is a skill that can be relearned and strengthened through treatment.

Our focus on mentalizing in psychiatric treatment is based on a growing body of evidence that points to mentalizing as the key to resilience—the ability to adapt successfully to adversity, challenges and stress. By promoting resilience, mentalizing facilitates coping with vulnerabilities, including the genetic vulnerability to psychiatric disorders such as depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders and addictive disorders. Research is demonstrating, for example, that persons who can mentalize in the face of trauma—including childhood trauma—are less vulnerable to psychiatric disorders. Research is also demonstrating that adjustment and quality of life of people with various psychiatric disorders is ultimately determined by abilities that result from mentalizing.