Reflective Functioning on Adult Attachment Interview (RF-AAI)
This Reflective Functioning on Adult Attachment Interview (RF-AAI) training will teach you how to assess a person’s mentalizing capacity.
About this training
Mentalizing refers to the capacity to make sense of one’s own behaviour and experiences as well as those of others in terms of intentional mental states. This course will teach attendees how to assess a person’s mentalizing capacity (operationalized here as Reflective Functioning) based on transcripts of the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), a semi-structured interview on someone’s experiences with their attachment figures.
For many experts, measuring reflective function when a person is how to reflect upon their own childhood experiences as in the AAI is considered the gold standard to evaluate how effective a person can mentalize.
Attendees will further learn how to administer the AAI and how AAI-RF can be assessed and applied in various contexts (e.g. research, in clinical work including private practice, court proceedings or assessment work – the latter in relation to, for instance, fostering or social service assessments of parenting).
Once trained in AAI-RF, the coding procedure can also be applied to other narrative-based material such as therapy session transcripts, interviews on symptomatology related to mental difficulties and many other such sources.
Who is this training for?
The course is relevant to professionals from different background: clinicians, empirical researchers in development and clinical psychology or psychotherapy research and beyond, to those wishing to complement their assessment procedures with an empirical index for a critical psychological capacity.
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"I did enjoy this training very much, the details provided to explaining the reasons behind a type of scoring was very good. This training added a much more comprehensive view and understanding of one’s mind and how one’s mind meets another mind. One of the best things I liked about this training was that it was very thorough!" Participant, June 2023
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The course will give a brief introduction to mentalizing theory, and will then focus on administration of the AAI and in the remaining two and a half days attendees, mainly via group work and joint discussion, will be introduced to and learn how to apply the Reflective Functioning Scale.
To achieve this and to prepare them for successful passing of the reliability at a time of attendee’s choice after completing the training, three AAIs will be scored together. After day one and two, there is a short homework of 15-20 minutes to help attendees internalize content from the day and to practice.
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In order to receive AAI-RF accreditation, participants are required to complete the Reliability Test which includes the additional coding of 10-15 Adult Attachment interviews. Those that choose to do the Reliability Test will be sent a zip file containing 15 Adult Attachment Interviews and instructions at the end of the Reflective Functioning on Adult Attachment Interview training. On successful completion of the Reliability Test you will be authorised to use the Reflective Functioning Scale for clinical or research purposes.
Please note, accreditation will only be given to those who successfully complete the Reliability Test. There is an additional £125 reliability fee if you wish to receive AAI-RF accreditation.
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The AAI-RF coding procedure was developed by a research team at the Anna Freud three decades ago. We have further developed the measure and validated it extensively over time.
Hannah Katznelson has authored the first systematic review on empirical work with the procedure. Tobias Nolte is a trained MBT practitioner and supervisor. Both tutors are actively involved in a number of research projects on the AAI-RF approach and have coded more than 1000 interviews between them.
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This training is run in person and online (check the specific dates to understand the format the training will be delivered in.)
The online platform, Zoom will be used to deliver online training. Prior to booking, please ensure you meet the system requirements so you can join this training session, to test your equipment visit Zoom.us/test and follow the instructions.
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Upon booking, you will be asked to confirm that you have read and accept our terms and conditions and our privacy notice. Please read these documents before booking:
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