Mentalization-based psychotherapy interventions with mothers-to-be

Abstract

In recent years, the theory of mentalization has been applied to a number of clinically relevant areas including psychotherapy for patients with borderline personality disorder, therapy with adolescents and children, treatment of self-harm in young people, parent-infant early interventions, and even community outreach (see Midgley & Vrouvam, 2012. Minding the child: Mentalizing interventions with children, young people, and their families. London and New York: Routledge). Extending on this body of work, the present article applies the theory of mentalization to psychotherapies that aim to help first time expecting mothers psychologically adjust to and prepare for motherhood. Theory and research suggest that pregnancy represents an intermediate space in which, under ideal circumstances, the woman comes to represent herself as a mother, her unborn child as a separate and intentional being, and her emotional bond or attachment to the fetus. However, the expecting mother's own conflictual experiences being mothered are likely to influence her ability to mentalize her pregnancy, setting the stage for problems in the mother-infant dyad postpartum. This article explores how mentalizing techniques may be used in psychotherapy to help mothers-to-be to mentalize their emerging identity as a mother, their unborn child, and their developing relationship to the fetus.