A psicoterapia baseada na mentalização para o tratamento da depressão na adolescência

Abstract

This study in Clinic Psychology focused the possibility of development of mentalization in the psychotherapy of an adolescent who had depressive symptoms and had sought treatment at a Department of Psychology University of Southern Brazil. Based on the contributions of the attachment theory, specifically the concepts of the reflective function and capacity of mentalization, a study guided by the qualitative-exploratory approach was made adopting the procedure of Case Study. The participants of this study was a adolescent of 18 years which was treated in psychotherapy for six months, twice a week. The adolescent were evaluated before and after the psychotherapeutic process, with Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) for the analysis of depression indicators and a Structured Interview, which was applied on the Checklist for Evaluation of Clinical Mentalization. Besides these instruments, was also used the device of writing in psychotherapy in order to exploit its benefits both for the development of mentalization as for reducing depressive symptoms in adolescence. The results showed that the teenager had committed a mentalization at the beginning of treatment, but that could be developed over this, contributing significantly to the reduction of their depressive symptoms. The use of writing in this psychotherapeutic approach facilitated the development of mentalization of the patient, helping them to achieve a deeper understanding of their own affective experience, giving new meaning to the affects that were translated into new and more flexible to cope with its problematic.