Marte Meo

Domain V · Systemic, relational, group & community · Maria Aarts · 1978 · Netherlands

What it is

Marte Meo (roughly "by one's own strength") is a video-based counselling method, not a manualised psychotherapy. A practitioner films short everyday interactions between a caregiver (parent, foster or adoptive parent, nursery teacher, nurse) and a child or a dependent adult. The practitioner…

Format

• Marte Meo has no fixed number of sessions. It runs as a repeated cycle (film → analyse → review with a working point → practise → film again) inside a frame of contracting at the start and a formal ending. The steps below are assembled from the sources. The German textbook's chapter structure…
• Reported course length: 2–8 filming-and-review sessions in one clinical case series, and at least three in an infant mental-health clinic. Weekly filming is reported in some nurseries, but frequent filming can wear the method out. Without filming, a trained therapist can apply the analysis model in…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• What it is. Marte Meo (roughly "by one's own strength") is a video-based counselling method, not a manualised psychotherapy. A practitioner films short everyday interactions between a caregiver (parent, foster or adoptive parent, nursery teacher, nurse) and a child or a dependent adult. The practitioner analyses the film for the child's developmental needs and the caregiver's existing supportive behaviour, then…
• Delivering it under the name. The Marte Meo network licenses its training in four levels: (1) Practitioner, about six training days, where staff learn the elements and checklists and bring their own films; (2) Therapist / Colleague Trainer, which the sources describe as about two years of part-time, supervised training on filmed cases (Therapist = counselling parents; Colleague Trainer = counselling professional…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• Silent handling; announcing too far ahead.
• The adult taking two or three turns in a row.
• Too many clips; clips that need lengthy explanation.
• Confirmation that comes late, or only for the finished product.
• Pressured consent in statutory or child-protection referrals (see section 5).

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.