Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT)

MBT can help people understand their own thoughts and feelings, recognise what may be happening in other people’s minds, and respond more thoughtfully in relationships. It may be useful when difficulties involve intense emotions, misunderstandings, impulsive reactions, unstable relationships, significant life changes, work issues linked to personal relationships, depression, or anxiety. MBT cannot remove every problem, guarantee a particular outcome, replace urgent or specialist support, or provide medication advice or prescriptions. If another type of care is needed, this should be discussed with an appropriate healthcare professional.

Many structured MBT programmes combine individual and group therapy. Individual sessions provide focused one-to-one attention to your experiences, relationships, and patterns of thinking and feeling. Group sessions offer an additional setting in which people can practise mentalizing with others, notice different perspectives, and explore reactions as they arise between group members. At present, Dr Angell offers individual MBT sessions only rather than group treatment. This allows the work to remain focused and personalised but does not include the interpersonal learning that can arise in a group setting. As part of the assessment, you and Dr Angell will consider whether individual MBT is appropriate for your needs. If a combined individual-and-group programme or another service would be more suitable, he can discuss this with you and help signpost you to an appropriate provider.

His experience of running an MBT programme is important in this regard, as almost all the individuals he worked with found group work difficult and required an approximate 4–6 month period to join group work. Many people are in a position where they do not want to share their issues with others. He will consider this and discuss it with you at your first appointment.