Mentalization-based treatment (MBT) is an evidence-based therapy for people with borderline personality disorder, with emerging evidence supporting its use for individuals with antisocial personality disorder, and for adolescents struggling with self-injurious behavior. As a transdiagnostic psychotherapy, MBT is also employed to treat depression, PTSD, substance use disorder, eating disorders, and psychotic disorders.

MBT is a structured, exploratory, and highly collaborative psychotherapy with roots in psychoanalysis, attachment theory, and developmental psychology. MBT was developed and researched in the 1990s by the psychoanalysts and researchers Anthony Bateman and Peter Fonagy, and originally implemented in the National Health Service in the United Kingdom.

MBT’s primary focus is helping people to mentalize—to reflect on mental states in themselves and others. “Mental states” are all of the invisible stuff of the mind: thoughts, beliefs, emotions, desires, needs, attitudes, values, feelings about ourselves, and personality traits. Unlike many forms of therapy, MBT does NOT try to directly modify patients’ thoughts or behaviors, or to generate intellectual insight. As individuals gain the ability to mentalize around their core areas of attachment-related insecurities, they experience improvements in mood, self-esteem, relationships, and behavior.