Mentalisation-based therapy for parental conflict – parenting together; an intervention for parents in entrenched post-separation disputes

Abstract

High-conflict relationship dissolution has been shown to cause substantial emotional risk and psychological harm to children’s developmental outcomes. Parents in chronic post separation conflict who repeatedly use the courts to address their disputes are by nature difficult to engage in therapeutic services. This paper describes the theoretical and practical key elements of a mentalisation-based therapeutic intervention, Mentalization-Based Therapy for Parental Conflict – Parenting Together (MBT-PT), that has been developed in order to address some of the unique challenges that these parents and the professionals working with them are facing. Specifically, the intervention aims to reduce anger and hostile conflicts between parents and mitigate the damaging effects of inter-parental conflict on children. The implementation procedure of the MBT-PT intervention among parents in entrenched conflict over their children, in the context of a random allocation pilot study, is briefly described. Next, the MBT-PT intervention is exemplified using clinical examples, followed by potential implications concerning practice and policy for professionals working with this population of parents.

Keywords:

• parental conflict
• court
• separation and divorce
• mentalisation-based therapy
• children’s development