ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the most important strategic underpinnings of mentalization-based child therapy. It reviews the work of several authors with new and innovative ideas about the technique. The chapter outlines the main lines of the therapeutic strategy in mentalization-based child therapy in a discussion of the framework of treatment and the basic principles on which the treatment is based. Particularly in the early phases of treatment, when there is a representational mismatch and child's vehemence and urge to control increase, it is necessary for the therapist to retain some inner space in which to think. Working in the transference is a therapeutic means by which the therapist and the child together try to understand what is going on. The chapter explores the most important objective of the treatment was formulated: promoting the emergence of a coherent self, a sense of agency, and a capacity to defer, modulate, and regulate emotional reactions. It concludes with some remarks on ending the treatment.