MBT Services

Alfred CYMHS MBT Program (Melbourne): Brief overview

(Program guidelines available upon request to service)

The MBT Program for young people aged 17 to 25 years at Alfred CYMHS commenced January 2015. As of June 2018 there are 17 clinicians at Alfred CYMHS who have completed Basic level training, and 5 of these have also completed Practitioner Level Training. The program is overseen by an MBT accredited supervisor.

Core components of the Alfred CYMHS MBT Program:

  • Formulation based assessment process
  • Weekly Individual Therapy (typically provided by a clinician with at least Basic MBT Training)
  • Weekly MBT Group (90mins during school terms for 12 to 18 months per patient)
  • 6-monthly reviews with MBT coordinator or a group clinician and case manager and re-completion of quantitative outcome measures
  • Consult Group – fortnightly group-based supervision for group clinicians and case managers who have patients currently in the MBT Program facilitated by MBT Coordinator
  • Fortnightly dyad MBT Supervision of Group clinicians by MBT Coordinator
  • Monthly individual MBT Supervision of Group clinicians by MBT Coordinator
  • Quarterly MBT information sessions about the MBT Program at CYMHS to prospective patients, carers and other significant support persons (e.g. psychosocial rehab workers, residential carers, drug and alcohol workers, youth workers) and clinicians                 

Spectrum: Personality Disorder Service for Victoria - MBT Clinic


Spectrum is a specialist public mental health service which provides advocacy, training, research, consultation and a variety of BPD-specific treatments for individuals aged 16-64 with complex and severe personality disorder throughout the state of Victoria.

Clients of our Mentalization-Based Treatment program receive 18 months of combined group and individual therapy delivered on a weekly basis by the clinic’s experienced multidisciplinary team. Our MBT groups run on a year-round basis, are capped at a maximum of eight participants, and are open to new members who have completed the psycho-educative MBT-I programme as past graduates are discharged.

A small number of our treatment positions are reserved for clients who are willing to participate in videotaped sessions in order to support best practice clinical MBT supervision and treatment in our program. The program is supported by regular internal supervision and clinical review as well as monthly clinical supervision with Dr Anthony Bateman.

Further information about Spectrum, our work, and our MBT program can be found on our website: www.spectrumbpd.com.au