Mentalization Supporting Therapy MST

Kurzfassung/Abstract

E D I TO R I A L
European Psychotherapy is published in the 15th year now. It arose from surveys of psychotherapy organisations of nearly all European states. The advisory board is one of the results of this cooperation.
In the first issue in 2000 we introduced the most recent psychotherapeutic developments of that time (Dialectic Behavior Therapy DBT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy ACT, Functional Behavior Therapy FBT). It was followed by the consistent and radical accentuation of Davanloo’s Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy. In 2003 we dealt extensively with presenting the treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder as it was developed in the work with war victims in the former Yugoslavia by Willi Butollo and coworkers. After this followed the Existential Analysis of Viktor Frankl, published by Alfried Längle, and Pesso Therapy PBSP which is on its way to become better-known in Europe only for a short time. Also not so well-known has been that since the beginnings of the 90th a third wave therapy has developed in Europe: Strategic Brief Therapy SBT which puts the work with emotions and the development of personality in the foreground. From here it is only a small step to the Emotion Focussed Therapy of Leslie Greenberg (2007) as a scientific further development of Gestalt Therapy and Client Centered Psychotherapy.
Next we had the pleasure to introduce Jeremy Holmes as a guest publisher. He is a topclass representative of Psychoanalysis himself and he succeeded in getting contributions of real value about the presence and the future of Psychoanalysis from authors who instigate a lively development of Psychoanalysis. In his Editorial ‘towards a secure theoretical and evidential base for psychoanalytic psychotherapy’ he gives an introduction and an outline of this collection of psychoanalytic writings which are not written for psychoanalysts but for all psychotherapists who want to know more about today’s Psychoanalysis, who want to do notional steps towards it, maybe for to break with old prejudices, to become more open again for psychodynamic ideas or to ascertain similarities that are much bigger then assumed until now. We as the publishers of this periodical had to see thereby that not only communication between the schools of therapy are essential but also communication between the national groups of psychotherapists in Europe. And that exactly is our European project.
2010-2011, psychotherapists from all over Europe reported on psychotherapy training in their country:
Gerhard Lenz, Rafael Rabenstein, Vivian Görgen Austria
Martine Bouvard France
Serge Sulz and Stefan Hagspiel Germany
Evrinomy Avdi Greece
Bernardo Nardi and Emidio Arimatea Italy
Susan van Hooren Netherlands
Andrzej Kokoszka Poland
Celia Avila Fernández Spain
Bo Erik Sigrell & Rolf Sandell Sweden and
Jan McGregor Hepburn Great Britain.
2012-2013, body psychotherapy became a topic. Concentrative Movement Therapy CMT (KBT) was used for this purpose - an evaluated Body Psychotherapy for psychosomatic and psychic disorders.

2014-2015 topic, Austria – Home of the World’s Psychotherapy – most
of the great psychotherapists in the early 20th century lived in Vienna or their career began there: Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, Michael Balint, Wilhelm Reich, Alfred Adler, Victor Frankl, Paul Watzlawick and Fred Kanfer.
2016-2017, Embodiment in Psychotherapy was topic (edited by Gernot Hauke) with absolutely innovative contributions – looking in the future of psychotherapy:
Wolfgang Tschacher, Mario Pfammatter: Embodiment in psychotherapy – A necessary complement to the canon of common factors?
Marianne Eberhard-Kaechele: Emotion is motion: Improving emotion regulation through movement intervention
Rosemarie Samaritter and Helen Payne: Being moved: Kinaesthetic reciprocities in psychotherapeutic interaction and the development of enactive intersubjectivity
Tania Pietrzak, Gernot Hauke, Christina Lohr: Connecting Couples Intervention: Improving couples’ empathy and emotional regulation using embodied empathy mechanisms.
Andrea Behrends, Sybille Müller, Isabel Dziobek: Dancing supports empathy: The potential of interactional movement and dance for psychotherapy
Susanne Bender: The meaning of movement rhythm in psychotherapy
Gernot Hauke, Christina Lohr, Tania Pietrzak: Moving the mind: Embodied cognition in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Lily Martin, Valerie Pohlmann, Sabine C. Koch, Thomas Fuchs: Back into life: Effects of Embodied therapies on patients with Schizophrenia.
And now 2023-2024, the latest integrative psychotherapeutic development - first published in 2021 - has not yet entered the evidence-based evaluation phase: Mentalization Supporting Therapy MST. That's exactly what it's about with EP: new important impulses, which of course only become evidence-based a few years after the approach was developed. Nevertheless, MST can build on a surprisingly broad empirical basis.
We can draw on more than thirty years of research tradition on the behavioral diagnostic system, strategic brief therapy and strategic-behavioral therapy. Because MST is actually not a new therapeutic approach. Similar to Fred Kanfer's self-management approach, it is a variant of cognitive-behavioral therapy, consisting of the evidence-based intervention strategies of behavioral therapy. However, the cognitive aspect focuses much more than Aaron T. Beck on metacognitions (thinking about thoughts, feelings and needs), so one can speak of metacognitive behavioral therapy. In addition, emotions have come to the fore. It's about the ability to regulate emotions - to be able to control one's emotions in such a way that they lead to stable and satisfying relationships. The third focus is needs orientation, based on John Bowlby's attachment theory. Insecure attachment in childhood as an elementary disposition for mental and psychosomatic illnesses. And therefore the bond between patient and therapist is an indispensable condition for successful psychotherapy.
The impetus for the development of MST came from Peter Fonagy and his working group with their Mentalization Based Therapy MBT, whose perspective Daniel Barth presents in the first article. This is followed by two articles by Lars Theßen and Serge Sulz, in which they describe the theoretical background, therapeutic conception and practical approach. The special type of emotion exposure in MST (Emotion Tracking), which was adopted by Albert Pesso, is described very clearly and impressively by Serge Sulz and Maria Schreiner.
This is followed by reports on previous research in the MST research laboratory by Lars Theßen, Serge Sulz and colleagues. Finally, there is an article by Annette Richter-Benedikt in which the use of MST in young people is described. All articles are peer reviewed.
MST was only one example of innovative therapeutic development that others will follow.
Annette Richter-Benedikt & Maria Schreiner - Editors