This page provides a brief outline of the third session to be run by AMBIT Local Trainers or AMBIT Leads with their own team. Materials needed for the session will be linked to this page for easy access. At the bottom of the page is a session plan for a three hour training session which is offered in a format which aims to make explicit the links between session activities and session objectives. Some trainers may find this way of planning sessions particularly helpful.

1. Agreeing the task.

The broad task in this session is to develop an understanding of the mentalization and the developmental basis of mentalizing. It may be helpful to have a brief discussion about what people know about mentalizing already and about what people feel about the word 'mentalizing' which often causes difficulty. The learning objective of this session is to establish basic knowledge of mentalizing, the developmental aspects of mentalizing, the importance of mentalizing in human communication and its relationship to epistemic trust.

2. Explaining the issue.

The basic ideas of mentalization needs to be presented to the group in a somewhat didactic way. Depending on the group this needs to be allocated something between 30-60 minutes. In the page Mentalization there are two talks on video by Dickon Bevington and one conversation with Jon Allen from the Menninger Clinic. There are also slides that can be found from a link on that page that can be used to make your own presentation. For different groups, this material will be more or less familiar. For teams with staff less familiar with the material, it is important to avoid a theory bombardment which can be quite aversive.

3. Practicing.

1. Show the team the clip from the film Fishtank. Fishtank film clip. Invite the group to identify when characters in the film were mentalizing and when they were not. Have a team discussion about it.
2. Do a role play involving the two trainers. Plan this beforehand and make it simple. One person play a young person who is being cooperative and the other plays a worker. See Advice about Role Playing in the manual.
3. Watch film clip from The Therapist's Mentalizing Stance and identify times when client adopts a more mentalizing position and when she moves away from this.

4. Reflect

• Reflect on what emerged from the observational practice that the group has done.
• Identify things that you do already which support mentalizing of both your self and others.
• Review learning objectives of the session

5. Manualize

Based on the team discussion, make a sub-page (Log in, switch to Edit mode, and click + Manualize our work) for either Mentalization or for The Therapist's Mentalizing Stance as to how mentalizing can be applied to your team and your work. .

More resources

Training Exercises for Mentalization
Session Plan for three hour training session on Mentalization