Mind-Reframed

We are a team of experienced therapists based in London, UK who are uniquely prepared to support individuals with emotion regulation and relationship difficulties, self-harm and impulsivity. These challenges are associated with high sensitivity, difficulties returning to calm emotional baseline and early traumatic experiences and in the medical world get described as “borderline personality disorder”, “emotionally unstable personality” and/or "complex post-traumatic stress". 

We support people who wish to navigate the impact that trauma or difficult early experiences have on their life. Our practice is trauma-informed which means that we don’t view the diagnosis you received as an ultimate statement on who you are as a person but a signpost in how you can be best supported to thrive in all areas of your life.

We specialise in supporting people who are highly sensitive and experience their emotions more intensely than an average person. Our intensive programmes in Dialectical Behaviour Therapy for adults and adolescents and Mentalization Based Treatment aim to equip people with robust skills to recognise and manage overwhelming emotions and impulsive behaviours.

• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is a programme for people who experience difficulties in regulating emotions. There is no specific diagnostic requirement for participation in the programme. If intense emotions, unmanageable distress or problematic behaviours interfere with your ability to be an effective human being, for example in the context of personal or professional relationships, DBT might be just what's needed. It will assist you in coping effectively with self-harm, extreme emotional sensitivity, mood swings, ADHD, eating difficulties, anger, depression, anxiety, intense relationships, impulsivity, and ultimately in building a fruitful, satisfying life.

What will I learn?
There are four core DBT modules which are attended as part of the full DBT programme. It takes 34 weeks to complete them all once, however, as the research studies conducted on DBT for BPD have all included one year of this intensive treatment, we recommend that clients commit to DBT for one year. This is subject to individual circumstances.

1. Core Mindfulness and the Middle Path consists of 6 weekly sessions and is designed to teach you how to increase your awareness levels, decrease reactivity and judgmentalness, focus better, train your attention, accept current moment experiences and be more compassionate towards yourself. This module will also teach you how to avoid taking extreme positions and instead acknowledge the validity of different positions and others' perspectives.
2. Distress Tolerance module lasts for 8 weeks and is centred on accepting difficult situations and emotions and finding ways to survive and tolerate the moment without engaging in problematic behaviours such as self-harm, conflict or impulsive substance misuse.
3. Emotion Regulation entails 12 weekly classes and involves learning to recognise and label current emotions, identify obstacles to changing emotions, reduce emotional vulnerability and reactivity, increase positive emotions, and change emotions that are unhelpful or unwarranted.
4. Interpersonal Effectiveness is spread over 8 weeks and teaches strategies for asking for what you need, saying no, setting boundaries and coping with interpersonal conflict in a way that influences others whilst enhancing the relationship and your respect. This module is of particular relevance to individuals who experience their relationships as chaotic, intense and unstable, and it teaches strategies for maintaining balanced relationships.

These skills classes are available Online via Zoom and in-person near King's Cross in London. For more information please go to www.mind-reframed.com/dbtskills or contact us by email to arrange an assessment.

• Mentalization Based Treatment (MBT) is another evidence based psychological programme that was initially developed for people who meet the criteria for "borderline personality disorder" (BPD) by clinicians and researchers at the Anna Freud Centre. Since then it’s been proven to be helpful in supporting people whose interpersonal sensitivity is the core feature of their struggles. MBT programme consists of both group and individual components and its recommended length is a minimum of 12 months.

For MBT to be successful participants attend both parts of the treatment. In the early phase of therapy it is helpful if participants can attend regular 1:1 therapy sessions in order to develop a safe relationship where both participant and therapist can work on a shared understanding of key mentalizing issues and treatment aims. The frequency of 1:1 sessions can be spaced out after this initial phase depending on individual circumstances. The individual sessions are the platform for the group therapy which provides participants with opportunities to experiment with alternative ways of understanding themselves and others in new and unfamiliar ways.

More information can be found at www.mind-reframed.com/mbt.  

Intensive DBT and MBT programmes and group sessions

• DBT Skills Classes: £85 per session (payable per module)
• Full DBT Programme (one-to-one therapy, skills classes and access to phone skills coaching): from £185 a week 
• Full MBT Programme: from £160 a week (concessions available)
  MBT Group Therapy: £80 (90 minutes) per session (payable per 8-week block)