Introduction to the Special Issue: Mentalization Based Treatment for Children, Adolescents and Families, Dialogues Between Research and Practice^*

In 2004, with the publication of Bateman and Fonagy’s book, Mentalization-based Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder, a wonderful bridge between theoretical integration and clinical reality began to emerge. While Bateman and Fonagy’s (2004) therapeutic model represented an invaluable contribution to the field of personality disorders and continues to be, it also opened the door to what has become a fruitful field of research and clinical development. Today, one only needs to search mentalization on the web and witness the international reach of these ideas and how they have captured the imagination and creativity of clinicians, theoreticians, and researchers all over the world. In 2017, an example of such impact was the publication of the book, Mentalization-based Treatment for Children – A time limited approach, by an international group of authors (Midgley et al., 2017). The book brought together the strengths of researchers and clinicians alike resulting in a developmental and relational model of intervention. In the same vein, there have been developmental and systemic modifications and applications of the original model, including work with adolescents and families among many other adaptations to the needs of specific populations such as chronic illness, relational trauma, sexual abuse, and maltreatment, eating disorders, conduct disorders, working with parents, to mention a few.

In June 2023, MBT researchers and clinicians gathered in the city of Barcelona to celebrate the first International MBT conference with a focus on children, adolescents, and families. The conference sought to create dialogs between research and clinical practice, attempting to highlight the strength of this contemporary psychodynamic model which brings together developmental psychology, child psychoanalysis, neuroscience, systemic and relational lenses as well as anthropology and developmental psychopathology frameworks. The conference highlighted the richness of the mentalization family and the ability of these ideas to create a “We mode” made of diverse and unique voices. We had in attendance members of the mentalization community from 27 countries including many poster presentations as well as two full days of dialogues.

In this special issue, we present some of the presentations of the MBT Barcelona conference co-sponsored by the Fundación Vidal y Barraquer of Barcelona, Spain and IMAGINA: Center for the Applications of Mentalization in Barcelona, Spain in collaboration with the Anna Freud Centre in London, UK and the Journal of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy. JICAP seeks to give a place for the multiple voices of researchers and clinicians in the world of infant, child, and adolescent psychotherapy to come together beyond borders and across cultures. The articles in this special edition fit that mission. Seldom, a set of ideas become a unifying force, rather we often witness sectarian forces at play and their impact in the growth and proliferation of ideas. The ideas and concepts framing the mentalization based literature promote the opposite, they seek to create inclusive, genuinely curious dialogue and exchange. This was clearly witnessed at the Barcelona conference where an atmosphere of comradery and community were felt and witnessed. In today’s divisive environment this represents a refreshing and hopeful prospect and reality.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.