{"id":119871,"date":"2020-07-23T11:00:32","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T10:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.harleytherapy.co.uk\/counselling\/?p=119871"},"modified":"2023-03-14T05:25:22","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T05:25:22","slug":"what-is-mentalisation-based-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.harleytherapy.co.uk\/counselling\/what-is-mentalisation-based-therapy.htm","title":{"rendered":"What is Mentalisation-Based Therapy?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"mentalisation-based<\/a>

By: Bill Smith<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Often second guess yourself? Spend a lot of time worrying<\/a> what people think about you, or if they like you at all? Or sometimes get accused of overreacting<\/a> or overthinking<\/a> things? Mentalisation-based therapy might be for you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is mentalisation-based therapy?\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Mentalisation-based therapy is a psychotherapy focussed on helping you have clearer and more correct thoughts about yourself and others. The idea is that if you improve your thinking, you will gain control over problematic behaviours and make better choices, meaning your relationships improve\u00a0 and you feel better.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A medium to long-term therapy<\/strong>, mentalisation-based treatment, or ‘MBT’, is often offered in a mix of individual and group sessions, or can be used as a form of family therapy .<\/p>\n

And what is ‘mentalising’, anyway?<\/h3>\n

Peter Fonagy, the psychoanalyst who made a therapy out of the concept,<\/strong> describes mentalising as, “The process by which we make sense of each other and ourselves, implicitly and explicitly, in terms of subjective states and mental processes.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

An easier way to see it is as, ‘thinking about thinking’. We all do this when we ask ourselves, “What do I think about this?’. “What do they think about me?”. It’s powerful stuff, because we base our beliefs<\/a>, choices, and actions on the answers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"mentalisation<\/a>

By: brittany<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n

We are all occasionally bad at mentalising. A classic example is <\/strong>being in love<\/a>. We wear the proverbial ‘rose coloured glasses’, and we make big assumptions<\/a> about ourselves and the object of our affection.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of us, due to the ways we were raised or things we experienced, are actually never good at ‘mentalising’,<\/strong>\u00a0 particularly when it comes to relationships<\/a>. We might think we are good at it, but we actually have minds that:<\/p>\n