Working with Autistic Children and their Families from a Mentalization Based Therapy for Children (MBT-C) Approach

Abstract

Work with children on the autistic spectrum and their families is described and illustrated from a mentalization-based therapy lens. Focus on the importance of working with parents from a therapeutic stance that models an interactive style and on the capacity to “find and be with” a child on the autistic spectrum is described. The MBT intervention seeks to offer an alternative model of relationship which fits both the child’s “regulation profile” and his caregiver’s capacity to learn and generalize a new way of connecting and communicating. These aims are achieved through the application of a scaffolding approach, one that seeks to provide a developmental experience within a secure and predictable, yet flexible, therapeutic framework with the central aim of improving psycho-social functioning and increased emotional regulation skills for this population.

Keywords:

• autism
• reflective functioning
• affect regulation
• joint attention
• parenting

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Norka T. Malberg

Norka T. Malberg, PsyD, is a certified psychoanalyst who trained in child psychoanalysis at the Anna Freud Centre in London, and in adult psychoanalysis at the Western New England Psychoanalytic Institute. She is currently Assistant Clinical Professor, Yale Child Study Center; Faculty Member, Instituto de Salud Mental, Universidad Ramon Lluil, Barcelona Spain; and Clinical Tutor, Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families. She is author of The Anna Freud Tradition, the first book in Routledge’s “Lines of Development” series (of which she is also co-editor); and coauthor of Time-Limited MBT for Children. Known for her applications of attachment theory to clinical work, she has been featured as a master clinician in such video series as the APA’s Systems of Psychotherapy Video Series and Working with Emotions in Emotion-Focused Therapy. She is currently in private practice in Barcelona, Spain.