Mentors support, challenge and provide vision. Assisting a fellow to learn how to assess or critique his/her own clinical performance is essential and a foundational component of the reflective process. Fellows must then be able to use different strategies for thinking more deeply about their clinical reasoning. Mentors have a good grasp of clinical knowledge attained through reflection of their experience. They challenge fellows with questions to facilitate growth and development of the fellow’s clinical knowledge.

The mentor also challenges the Fellow to define their vision: "Who do you want to become?" "What will your contribution to the profession be?" This requires the ability to see the broader view beyond the application of technique or specific knowledge of the patient to the political, social, cultural, moral and organizational issues that affect professional practice and patient outcome.

MTI strives for an educational environment that creates a mentoring experience. The role modeling of professional behaviors and a lifelong commitment to learning is a key component of the Manual Therapy Description of Specialized Practice.