[XAutumnX]

Okay well I saw a mental social worker yesterday and after a long session DBT or MBT was suggested for me, he left and got me an information sheet on them both however the info was very limited and all it said was that it is for BPD and SH. I already knew that and wanted information on the therapies themselves.

I will receive an appointment for next week with a doctor to see which therapy will be best for me and to start me on medication (I was suicidal). Anyway I wondered if anyone can give me some insight to these therapy's and if they are helpful?

Thanks in advance

If you haven't seen these already then they may be of some help;

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2007/an-...therapy/all/1/

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2008/men...d-therapy-mbt/

good luck.

[ECHOES]

I found a couple of sites for you to look at. I'm not familiar with either therapy.

This one is from this site

http://psychcentral.com/lib/2008/men...d-therapy-mbt/

This one is by a the doctor who wrote the book with the same title as the site, Borderline Personality Disorder Demystified, and really interesting book!
http://www.bpddemystified.com/index.asp?id=22

This one talks about the founder of MBT, Peter Fonagy of the UK:
http://buildingalifeworthliving.com/...14/dbt-or-mbt/

A couple more:

http://dbttherapy.com/dbt-mbt-differences.html

http://psychnews.psychiatryonline.or...ticleid=113147

http://bpd.about.com/od/treatments/a/mentalize.htm

[MDDBPDPTSD]

I am not personally familiar with MBT, but I am with DBT. I do recommend learning the DBT skills. There are several online peer lead groups for DBT as well. The key to DBT is practice what you learn.

Autumn, I've been through DBT and although I thought it was very helpful, I found it very "skill based". I've read a lot about MBT and find it very intriguing. Lucky for you, you are located in the UK and MBT was actually developed and researched in the UK. Anthony Bateman is one of the pioneering therapists in the development of this technique. He worked very closely with Peter Fonagy, a therapist with a long resume of working with individuals with BPD. In recent years, Bateman has done a lot of conferences here in the US giving us the lowdown on MBT techniques. He was so well received that one of the premiere hospitals here in the US which works with BPD clients (McLean Hospital in MA) has included the therapy in their treatment program.

Read a bit about each. I particularily liked MBT's take on how individuals with BPD think in a distorted fashion and how the therapy helps us recognize this and how we can learn to see things in a less distorted fashion. Both therapys are very well researched and both have had good solid stats to say that they are helpful in us making positive gains. Good luck with the appointment and your decision on which direction to go in.

[XAutumnX]

Thanks for all the replies and links, DBT looks very interesting and also complex. I found that more enjoyable to read about than MBT. So those of you that are doing DBT would say it is helpful and good?

I wasn't referred right away as I couldn't stress enough how I felt like I had gone through one person to another without getting help so they are going to decide which one would be best. Luckily I don't need to pay for anything but that still doesn't mean I want to waste time.

Are these done in groups and stuff or alone? I have Social Anxiety Disorder so I guess becoming social again is a big thing. I will also look up the founder, right now I can only imagine what it will be like but if it helps... Then I'm all for it.

Put into your search engine, Marsha Linehand. She is the developer of DBT over .. . I think twenty or so years ago ... the interesting thing is that just this year, Marshia Linehand "outed" herself as a person who suffered from BPD when she was a teen. She apparently was hospitalized for suicide ideation and severe self abuse when she was in her late teens. She was hospitalized for over a year or so. Read her account. ... in the end, she left and swore to herself that she'd come back and rescue others who were experiencing what she had . .. and although she developed a VERY effective treatment for others like herself, she felt unable to talk about her own psychiatric issues . .. .why? Because as we all know that BPD and other mental illnesses are seen as embarrassing or as an indication of personal weakness. By outing herself, Linehan, has done a LOT to making the general population aware of what all of us go through!

Let me start by saying I have no clue what MBT is is.
However, I started DBT in October and it's amazing. It is really changing my life.
I'm not sure how it goes in the UK, but my program involves:
- Once weekly group
- Once weekly individual therapy
- Phone coatching, within set hours
- A psychiatrist on the treatment team to prescribe and magage medication
Good luck

[XAutumnX]

@Jaybird57 I will look up the woman, that I find really interesting. You know I feel the same way about telling people my problem, their whole perspective changes and just assumes you are nuts and gives you a label. I'd prefer nobody knew than get treated different. I don't even tell my mum stuff.

@ThroughBeingCool

So you see them twice a week and not including the appointments for medication management? Would it not be easier to be in an inpatient facility? But then I guess you will loose your personal life so wouldn't be very ideal.

[cboxpalace]

I found the term mental social worker to be somewhat funny... I have no idea what mbt is. Is dbt helpful? well for some it is and for others it isn't.... I'm one of the ones it isn't helpful for. It could be for you though. I think it depends on how much you can work it into your life..... and don't be like me... I'm a horrible example... seriously though it's worked for many.. dbt that is... I don't know what mbt is..

[myrtle1976]

Originally Posted by XAutumnX

Okay well I saw a mental social worker yesterday and after a long session DBT or MBT was suggested for me, he left and got me an information sheet on them both however the info was very limited and all it said was that it is for BPD and SH. I already knew that and wanted information on the therapies themselves.

I will receive an appointment for next week with a doctor to see which therapy will be best for me and to start me on medication (I was suicidal). Anyway I wondered if anyone can give me some insight to these therapy's and if they are helpful?

Thanks in advance

My daughter attended a 5 day a week, all day program in DBT for appx. 1 month. It not only taught her so much she trully enjoyed it

Like you, I had some choice over whether I did DBT or MBT (lucky us!! ). I chose DBT, because I felt more convinced that they had a plan that would save me from imminent suicide. They would teach me solid, concrete skills to survive crises and regulate my emotions and manage inter-personal conflict. They had crisis plans. Telephone contact with the therapist. They relentlessly target first life threatening behaviours, then behaviours which interfere with your quality of life. DBT saved my life, no doubt about it.

Now, three years on, I find myself going back to read about MBT, because my T just completed a training course on it. Fonagy and Bateman are certainly harder to read and understand than Marsha Linehan. I think MBT would be very helpful to me now, having stabilised enough using DBT. MBT reaches to the core of BPD- addressing attachment and mentalisation. This is what I need now that I know I will be here long term. But I'm not convinced it could have kept me alive when things were really bad...

Originally Posted by ECHOES

This one talks about the founder of MBT, Peter Fonagy of the UK:
http://buildingalifeworthliving.com/2011/05/14/dbt-or-mbt/

The link in this post enables you to listen to audio recordings of the same session (i.e. same client brings same problem) in DBT and MBT. I found this really really helpful for getting a 'feel' for which would suit me better.

Thanks for posting that video link, Improving. It's interesting because I've read a lot on both techniques and I've gone to a lot of trainings on DBT. Ido find, however, that I'm much more fascinated by MBT than DBT, although both are obviously great techniques for working with us.