“DIFFICULT” PATIENTS AND HEALING IN THE DISINFORMATION AGE: MENTALIZING AS A TRANSDIAGNOSTIC APPROACH TO EMOTION DYSREGULATION AND TO MISTRUST OF FACTS

Abstract

Mentalizing-based therapy (MBT) was developed as a treatment for borderline personality disorder. MBT also shows increasing empirical support as a useful approach for patients who are harder to reach. In this Workshop, participants will learn about: 1) mentalizing, epistemic trust, and how those capacities develop; 2) the impact of adolescents’ emerging mentalizing capacities on emotion regulation by means of feeling understood; and 3) the relations between mentalizing, epistemic trust, and the spread of lies/disinformation across media platforms. The Workshop will offer hands-on experience with the MBT approach to mood dysregulation and epistemic mistrust. Participants will learn the mentalizing stance, how to assess mentalizing and nonmentalizing, and the core techniques of MBT. After video and clinical examples, participants will be given prompts for role-plays, working in small groups. Participants will receive links to MBT training materials as well as copies of the presentation. Participants will understand the basic premise of mentalizing theory and epistemic trust. Participants will gain skill and confidence in utilizing the mentalizing stance and techniques. The aim of MBT is to provide clinicians with a theoretically sound, practical, empirically validated approach to emotion dysregulation among adolescents, families, and anyone who has a high degree of mistrust/disbelief.