A complete and practical guide offering a concise overview of mentalization-based treatment (MBT) and its application in different situations and with different groups of patients to help improve the treatment of mental health disorders. Featuring an introduction to mentalizing and the evidence base to support it, followed by the principles of MBT and the basic clinical model in individual and group psychotherapy. Other chapters offer extensive clinical illustrations of the treatment of patients with depression, psychosis, trauma, eating disorders, and borderline, antisocial, narcissistic, and avoidant personality disorders. The final section outlines the application of mentalizing and MBT in different populations – children, adolescents, families, couples – and their use in different contexts – teams, schools, and care settings. Part of the Cambridge Guides to the Psychological Therapies series, offering all the latest scientifically rigorous and practical information on a range of key, evidence-based psychological interventions for clinicians.

‘This book brilliantly brings together, in accessible language, the research and clinical wisdom that have accumulated over the past 20 years in mentalization-based theory and practice. It definitively establishes mentalization-based treatment as the transdiagnostic treatment it is. Requiring no prior exposure to mentalization-based therapy, this must-read guide provides clinicians with essential tools that can be immediately implemented. Read it! It will be worth it!'

Carla Sharp - John and Rebecca Moores Professor, Associate Dean for Faculty and Research, CLASS, Department of Psychology, University of Houston

‘Cambridge Guide to Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT) is destined to become a seminal guide. The authors have invested decades in examining how mental processing influences our well-being and share their brilliant clarity of thought regarding mentalizing theory and relevant research. They further provide rich, detailed, and practical accounts of the guiding principles of MBT and describe potent interventions that can harness mentalizing capacities and improve treatment across a range of clinical problems. This book illustrates important ideas that will be relevant to psychotherapists at all levels who are working to improve their clinical practice.'

Shelley McMain - Senior Scientist, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Director, Psychotherapy Division, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto

‘Must-read book for anyone practicing MBT. The guide is a mind melt of brilliant clinical, scientific and conceptual brains, clearly showing that MBT is not a ‘guru-therapy' but democratic, full of life and kicking! Having collected the experiences of 30 years of training MBT, this guide is highly didactic with numerous detailed individual and group case descriptions giving insights in the magic potion of how to strengthen mentalization in very diverse mental problems and clinical settings. MBT follows recommendations of modern psychotherapy research by including all common factors and still provides a convincing narrative for the clinician in terms of disorder conceptualization, goals, tasks and change theory. With this guide MBT proves that it has become a stand-alone transdiagnostic treatment, with a strong theoretical and empirical underpinnings and – most important for clinicians – very clear and concrete directions for users.'

Svenja Taubner - Professor for Psychosocial Prevention, Medical Faculty Director, Institute for Psychosocial Prevention, University of Heidelberg

‘The charm of MBT is the balance between clear hypotheses and one's own critical ability to constantly question them. Thus, MBT is a psychotherapy factory in the best sense: creative, inspiring, and interface-compatible: for clinical practitioners oriented toward scientific evidence and for researchers oriented toward clinical implementation. This book is a catalyst that will greatly advance both the practice and theory of psychotherapy.’

Martin Bohus - Professor Emeritus of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Heidelberg University; Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany