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Mentalization Based Treatment for Families
Mentalization Based Treatment for Families (MBT-F) is an intervention for families with children aged between 7 and 18 years of age. MBT-F focuses on helping you and your family to understand each other’s ways of thinking and feeling. Research and experience shows that once this happens, communication and the ability to solve problems together will improve in the family.
What we offer
The service offers 6 - 10 meetings, usually fortnightly. Families may come to MBT-F with a whole range of difficulties including:
- Angry outbursts and tantrums
- Distressed or troubled children
- Tensions in family relationships
- Coping with loss and bereavement
- Difficulties with making or keeping friends
- Impact of divorce or separation on children
Who we are
We have a multi-disciplinary team which includes professionals from psychiatry, child and adolescent psychotherapy, clinical psychology and family therapy and we meet weekly for team supervision to support our work with families.
Our approach
The main focus of this treatment is on the relationships within your family. In the meeting your family and the therapist can think about any troubles you are experiencing. We aim to provide a calm, non-judgemental setting, where the therapist will invite everyone to think about their own feelings and those of other family members in order to find more positive ways of getting along together.
In addition to the meetings with the therapist you will be asked to fill in some questionnaires at the beginning and end of your involvement with the Service. These questionnaires are not seen by the therapists but are an opportunity for us to learn more about your experience, in order to improve the services. Findings from the study so far indicate that 6 to 10 meetings with an MBT-F therapist can make a real difference for the majority of families we see.
We are always keen to hear from families about their experiences of the service and the children in one family commented that it was a calm environment and that the therapy “was really good because we played games to express our feelings.”
“The problems have been seen from a different angle or perspective, [our therapist] has been very understanding, caring and we have been given many new tips on how to do things differently.”
Who we help
We encourage parents to contact the Anna Freud Centre directly via our Parent Consultation Service, but we also accept referrals from GP’s and other services. All families that fall within our catchment area will be offered an initial half an hour telephone consultation in order to decide whether the MBT-F service would be most helpful for your family, or to help you think about what other options are available.
The eleven London boroughs within our catchment area are:
- Barnet
- Brent
- Camden
- City of London
- Ealing
- Hammersmith & Fulham
- Haringey
- Harrow
- Islington
- Kensington & Chelsea
- Westminster
How to contact us
For more information or to make a referral please contact Natalie Merrett on 020 7443 2230 or natalie.merrett@annafreud.org
Please note: the Anna Freud Centre also offers a short course in MBT-F for those working with young people and their families, which introduces the key elements of this type of therapy.
Funding
The Family Support Services at the Anna Freud Centre are generously funded by John Lyon’s Charity, the Priory Foundation, the Bonita Trust and the Child in Mind Committee.
We also ask families for financial contributions on a contribute-as-you-can-afford basis, in order to allow us to offer this service to more families in need. No family will be refused help on the grounds of inability to make a financial contribution.
