Childhood has long been recognized as a developmental process. This book examines parenting through a similar lens, offering mental health providers a mentalizing framework for working with parents at all stages of parental development. Parenting is a developmental process that fluctuates and transforms throughout the lifespan. To support working with parents, the authors present a mentalizing approach that considers the current socio-cultural environment and its impact on the developmental process of parenting. This approach integrates a wealth of psychodynamic clinical research, theory, and practice. This book provides the reader with principles to inform evaluation, formulation, and treatment in their work with parents. It provides clinical examples followed by clinical formulations offering illustrations of the application of one approach to diverse clinical challenges in the context of working with parents, grandparents, and other caregivers.

This book, now available in paperback, is the first comprehensive clinical introduction to using Mentalization-based treatment (MBT) with children, 5-12 years old, who experience emotional and behavioral problems including anxiety, depression, and relational difficulties. Mentalization--based treatment (MBT) promotes clients’ ability to interpret the meaning of others’ behavior by considering their underlying mental states and intentions, as well as clients’ capacity to understand the impact of their own behaviors on others. Written by an international team of clinician--researchers who are pioneering the MBT model with children, the authors begin by exploring the significance of mentalization and then devote the core chapters to the process of conducting short-term (9--12 sessions) MBT for children, including problem assessment and case formulation in terms of mentalizing techniques, the therapist’s stance, and treatment termination. The approach draws on traditional psychodynamic principles, but integrates them with findings from attachment theory, the empirical study of mentalization, and features of other evidence--based approaches. This book includes a chapter-length case illustration and an appendix that lists measures of reflective functioning in children and their parents, as well as validation articles.