Observing mentalization in psychotherapies with adolescents: design of an observational system for therapeutic interaction

Objective: Based on the need for measures for assessing mentalization in adolescent psychotherapy, this study aims to design an observational system to evaluate the deployment of reflective function in both patients and therapists during psychotherapy sessions. Method: 10 episodes of rupture and 10 episodes of resolution randomly chosen within 5 videotaped and transcribed psychotherapies were analyzed using grounded theory “s open coding procedure and a three-level thematic analysis. Results: An observational system with 6 emergent dimensions (focus on mental states, opacity of mental states, contingent communication, causality of mental states, dynamic nature of mental states and focus on the present moment) and a 5-point scale was developed. Discussion and conclusions: The “Observational System for mentalization adolescent psychotherapy” (OMP-A) is an instrument that responds to certain weaknesses of other instruments by considering linguistic and paralinguistic aspects of mentalization and particular aspects that characterize interventions with adolescents. It “s possible use for training and supervision is discussed as well as some methodological challenges for future research.