Nick Midgley, Ioanna Vrouva (ed.), Minding the Child. Mentalization-Based Interventions with Children, Young People and their Families, Routledge, March 2012

What is ‘mentalization’? How can this concept be applied to clinical work with children, young people and families? What will help therapists working with children and families to ‘keep the mind in mind’? Why does it matter if a parent can ‘see themselves from the outside, and their child from the inside’?

Minding the Child considers the implications of the concept of mentalization for a range of therapeutic interventions with children and families. Mentalization, and the empirical research which has supported it, now plays a significant role in a range of psychotherapies for adults. In this book we see how these rich ideas about the development of the self and interpersonal relatedness can help to foster the emotional well-being of children and young people in clinical practice and a range of other settings.

With contributions from a range of international experts, the three main sections of the book explore:

• the concept of mentalization from a theoretical and research perspective
• the value of mentalization-based interventions within child mental health services
• the application of mentalizing ideas to work in community settings.

Minding the Child will be of particular interest to clinicians and those working therapeutically with children and families, but it will also be of interest to academics and students interested in child and adolescent mental health, developmental psychology and the study of social cognition.

Table of Contents

Midgley, Vrouva, Introduction. Part I: The Concept of ‘Mentalization’: Theory and Research. Fonagy, Allison, What is Mentalization? The Concept and its Foundations in Developmental Research. Sharp, Venta, Mentalizing Problems in Children and Adolescents. Vrouva, Target, Ensink, Measuring Mentalizing in Children and Young People. Part II: Clinic-based Interventions. Nijssens, Luyten, Bales, Mentalization-Based Treatment for Parents (MBT-P) with Borderline Personality Disorder and their Infants. Keaveny, Midgley, Asen, Bevington, Fearon, Fonagy, Jennings Hobbs, Wood, Minding the Family Mind: The Development and Initial Evaluation of Mentalization-Based Treatment for Families. Muller, Gerits, Siecker, Mentalization-Based Therapies with Adopted Children and their Families. Rossouw, Self-Harm in Young People: Is MBT the Answer? Part III: Community-based Interventions. Malberg, Thinking and Feeling in the Context of Chronic Illness: A Mentalization-Based Group Intervention with Adolescents. Bevington, Fuggle, Supporting and Enhancing Mentalization in Community Outreach Teams Working with ‘Hard-to-Reach’ Youth: The AMBIT Approach. Twemlow, Fonagy, Sacco, A Developmental Approach to Mentalizing Communities Through the Peaceful Schools Experiment. Lundgaard Bak, ‘Thoughts in Mind’: Promoting Mentalizing Communities for Children.