Mentalizing Skills Workshop

About this course:

Mentalization means trying to understand what motivates someone to act as they are. Mentalizing skills allow us to be curious about ourselves and about others and to explore the meaning of behaviour. This allows us to understand misunderstandings and to navigate complex relational situations.

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You might be thinking "don't I already try to understand people?" The answer to this would be yes, you probably do so quite naturally. However, all of us become vulnerable to losing curiosity and the capacity to understand ourselves and others when situations get hot (or sometimes when they get frosty). This is when misunderstandings and relational problems can occur. So it becomes important to be able to think about our own responses to difficult situations and to try to work out how it is that a relationship seems to be becoming unravelled. 

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This training will introduce the concept of mentalizing, and how it can be used in work settings to manage common problems. It is suitable for anybody who works with people where misunderstandings can occur, including but not limited to: community mental health, inpatient services, schools, human resources, support work, youth work, mediation, and hospitals. The course will highlight how mentalizing can be particularly important if you are concerned that a client/student/other is unsatisfied or not engaging at the level of their capabilities.

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The training will provide practical examples of mentalization skills that can be used in your workplace and how these skills can support you and your colleagues to manage emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Participants will come away with a better understanding of:

• What is mentalization? How can it be applied in work settings?

• What are the key mentalization skills?

• Ways to deal with common mentalizing problems.

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Pre-requisite: None

Suitable for: All staff working in multi-disciplinary teams. No clinical experience required.