Our internationally respected trainings and conferences team deliver practical and advanced training to allied mental health professionals.
We have also been hosting a range of UCL postgraduate programmes from certificate to doctoral level for over 20 years, attracting students from the UK and abroad who wish to advance their research and clinical understanding and skills.
Explore our courses
Training Courses
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2-Day Mentalization-Based Treatment: Certificate Course - Practitioner Level (Mexico, Spanish-speaking delegates only)
This two-day workshop will expand on previous knowledge and embed the basic skills of mentalization based treatment (MBT) at practitioner level. Participants learn how to use the MBT adherence scale for individual therapy and hone their MBT skills through clinical demonstration, video ratings, and role plays.
- 2 days live training - online
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AMBIT Multi-Team Training
AMBIT is a mentalization based team approach for teams working with young people with severe and multiple needs, who do not tend to access mainstream services. The AMBIT approach provides tools for putting mentalization to use in work with clients, team colleagues and wider inter-agency networks, and is designed to support the development of both local excellence and evidence-based practice.
- 5 days
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CBT and Mentalization in Work with Children, Young People and their Families
This two day course is a dialogue between CBT and mentalization approaches to working with young people with significant mental health problems. While recognising the difference between the two approaches, the course leaders will aim to explore whether the two approaches may positively complement each other.
- 2 days
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DIT & Long Covid: An Evidence Based Dynamic Approach to Long Term Physical Health Conditions
This workshop is suitable for all DIT practitioners as well as those who are completing the eDIT course. While knowledge of the DIT model is important, the course may be helpful for other clinicians who are working with long-term health conditions.
- 1 day
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Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) 20-Day Training Programme
DIT is designed to be implemented by therapists with an interest in and experience of psychoanalytic/dynamic psychotherapy. The workshop provides a basic introduction sufficient to enable participants to begin practicing this manualized treatment with supervision.
- 20 days
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Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) and Mentalization
This course is for DIT practitioners and supervisors to expand and consolidate mentalization techniques in DIT. This will be achieved through the use of teaching, clinical illustrations and demonstrations as well as role plays.
- 1 day
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Interpersonal Psychotherapy Training (IPT) - Supervisor Training
This course aims to provide participants with advanced knowledge and theoretical understanding of IPT, and will provide a competency based format for self assessment and clinical supervision.
- Six days (2 + 2 + 1 + 1)
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Interpersonal Psychotherapy Training for Adolescents with Depression (IPT-A)
This course will provide a comprehensive introduction to the knowledge competencies of IPT-A for depression in adolescents and an introduction to the skills competencies, which will be developed more fully in supervised clinical casework.
- 5 days plus 1 follow up day
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Mentalization Skills in Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)
Led by Prof Peter Fonagy, one of the key founders of Mentalization, and Dr Ros Law, this course is aimed at Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) practitioners and supervisors with an interest in exploring and consolidating their use of Mentalization techniques in IPT and therapists using Mentalization based treatment who would like to know more about IPT.
- 1 day
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Mentalization-Based Therapy for Eating Disorders (MBT-ED): a guide for eating disorder practitioners
The course will cover the implementation of iMBT-ED (psycho-education), and individual and group MBT-ED. The relevance of mentalizing to eating disorders and their therapists will be covered as well as how we manage risk and encourage behaviour change in a mentalizing therapy.
- 2 full days
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Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT) for Reflective Fostering
MBT-Fostering aims to promote the quality of relationships, support effective and sensitive foster care, and help carers to help the child in their care understand and manage emotions better. The focus is on improving the core components of secure attachment, including collaboration, and parental (or carer) reflective capacity. The MBT-Fostering approach pays particular attention to developing reflective practice for all professionals working with LAC.
- 2 days
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Mentalization-Based Treatment for Adolescence (MBT-A) Training (West Coast USA): Pacific Standard Time (PST)
In this course people will be able to get an overview of MBT-A; an understanding of the specific complexities about working with adolescents; an understanding of the development of mentalization and the relevance of it in relationships and in the maintenance of a self esteem, affect regulation and impulse control. The course will also touch on issues such as working with self harm, working with trauma and family work.
- 2 days
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Mentalization-Based Treatment with Children (MBT-C): Working with trauma
This course is for those who have already attended an introductory course on mentalization-based therapy with children or families (MBT-C on MBT-F), and wish to further their learning in relation to the model.
- 2 days
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Mentalization-Based Treatment: Basic Training (West Coast USA) - Pacific Standard Time (PST)
- 1 month programme (3 days live training and 21 hours self-guided content - online course)
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Mentalization-Based Treatment: Certificate Course - Practitioner Level
This two-day workshop will expand on previous knowledge and embed the basic skills of mentalization based treatment (MBT) at practitioner level. Participants learn how to use the MBT adherence scale for individual therapy and hone their MBT skills through clinical demonstration, video ratings, and role plays.
- 2 days live training and 4 hours self-guided content - online course
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Motivational Interviewing and Mentalizing
How do you help people who aren’t sure they want help? This course explores the theory and practice of Motivational Interviewing – a client-centred approach to strengthen their own motivation to change and support them in making changes.
- 2 days
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Parental Embodied Mentalizing Assessment (PEMA™): 8-week Reflective Practice
- 8 x 90-minute video-conference calls
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Relational approaches for supporting children and young people
Learn more about relational approaches and the impact of adopting a relational approach on pupils and the wider school community.
- 2 hours
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Senior Mental Health Lead training
The Anna Freud Centre’s Senior mental health lead offer is a 2-day online training course, combining the expertise of the Centre’s clinicians and tutors with a knowledgeable community of practice.
- 8 online modules over two training days and an optional 2 hour online reflective session
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Senior mental health lead training - for colleges
A two-day online training course for senior mental health leads in FE or sixth form colleges, helping you develop a sustainable whole-college approach to mental health.
- 8 online modules over two training days and an optional 2 hour online reflective session
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Story Stems Assessment Profile (SSAP) Refresher
The Anna Freud Centre runs a three-day training course teaching the administration, coding and application of the Story Stem Assessment Profile (SSAP) within both clinical and research domains. The Story Stem Assessment Profile (SSAP; Hodges and Hillman, 2004) asks the children to respond to a set of narrative story stems where they are given the beginning of a ‘story’ highlighting everyday scenarios with an inherent dilemma. Children are then asked to ‘show and tell me what happens next?’
- 1 day
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Supporting School Staff Wellbeing
Developed during the pandemic, ‘Leading a Mentally Healthy School’ is a new offer that combines the training expertise of Anna Freud Centre tutors with a knowledgeable community of practice, to support senior education leaders and designated mental health leads during the transition back to education, and beyond.
- 2 hours
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Trauma-Focussed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT) for Children and Young People with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Trauma-Focussed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT) is the only intervention recommended by NICE guidelines for Children and Young People with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) The cognitive model of PTSD in children and young people (Meiser-Stedman, 2002) will be presented and explained.
- 2 days
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Assessment of Children and Families in Care Proceedings: An Anna Freud Centre Approach
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 28th November 2022 - 30th November 2022
- 3 half days
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Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) Supervisor Training - Part 3
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 28th November 2022
- 1 day
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Initial mental health awareness
An introduction to mental health in schools, raising staff awareness about children and young people’s mental health and how to offer support.
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 28th November 2022
- 2 hours
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Mentalization-Based Treatment: Basic Training
Mentalizing refers to our ability to attend to mental states in ourselves and in others as we attempt to understand our own actions and those of others on the basis of intentional mental states. A focus on this very human activity as a therapeutic intervention forms the core of mentalization based treatment (MBT). MBT was initially developed for the treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD) although it is now being used on a wide range of disorders.
- Online – live and self-directed learning (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 30th November 2022 - 2nd December 2022
- 1 month programme (3 days live training and 21 hours self-guided content - online course)
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Managing anxiety in the classroom
Learn more about the impact of anxiety on children and young people, and how to support pupils with anxiety.
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 1st December 2022
- 2 hours
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Mentalizing and Mentalization Based Treatments with Children, Young People and Families (MBT CYP) – An Introduction
This self-guided online training will introduce participants to Mentalizing and Mentalization Based Treatments for Children, Young People, Families, Parents, Carers and Teams.
- Online – self-directed learning
- 1st December 2022
- Online Training Programme - 6 hours learning content
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Mental health and school attendance
Learn more about emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA), and how to support students experiencing it.
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 7th December 2022
- Approx. 2 hours
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Measuring the impact of mental health and wellbeing interventions
The course focuses on monitoring the impact of mental health and wellbeing interventions and support in schools and colleges.
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 8th December 2022
- 2 hours
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Parent-Infant Relational Assessment Tool - PIRAT Global Scales Training
This course will teach the rationale for PIRAT and the techniques for its use. It will provide an overview of assessment measures in infant mental health.
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 8th December 2022 - 12th December 2022
- 3 days
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Mentalization-Based Treatment: Basic Training (East Coast USA) - Eastern Standard Time (EST)
- Online – live and self-directed learning (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 10th January 2023 - 13th January 2023
- 1 month programme (3 days live training and 21 hours self-guided content - online course)
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Interpersonal Psychotherapy Training (IPT) Moving from Adults to Adolescents: How to use IPT with Adolescents and in a Family Context
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 12th January 2023 - 13th January 2023
- Two days
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Story Stem Assessment Profile Training
This course teaches the administration, coding and application of the Story Stem Assessment Profile (SSAP) within both clinical and research domains. As part of SSAP, children are presented with the beginning of a ‘story’ highlighting everyday scenarios and asked to ‘show and tell what happens next.’
- Online – live and self-directed learning (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 13th January 2023 - 10th February 2023
- 4 days (with a break between all days)
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Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy for Complex Care
This is advanced training for qualified dynamic interpersonal therapy (DIT) practitioners to apply the DIT model to a complex patient group in secondary care.
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 19th January 2023 - 20th January 2023
- 2 day
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Mentalization-Based Treatment for Families (MBT-F)
The basic element of this course will cover the theory and research base of mentalization-based therapy with families, with an introduction to some of the core clinical skills used in MBT-F. The primary focus will be on the clinical practice of MBT-F.
- Online – live and self-directed learning (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 19th January 2023 - 24th February 2023
- 6 half days
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Interpersonal Psychotherapy Training (IPT) Supervisor - Refresher Day
This day will be run as an interactive workshop, with extensive focus on attendees' current supervisory work with trainees seeking IPT in IAPT or generic IPT practitioner accreditation with IPTUK. This day is aimed at all qualified IPT supervisors – the model was originally developed in IAPT but can be used by any IPT supervisor.
- Online - via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 20th January 2023
- 1 day
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Developing and evaluating a cross-system mental health offer: applying learning from the HeadStart programme for local leaders of mental wellbeing
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 26th January 2023
- Half day
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Traumatic Bereavement: Supporting Children and Young People at School or College
This course will help professionals working in education settings to recognise and support children and young people who may have experienced traumatic bereavement.
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 26th January 2023
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Mentalizing the Body in Research and Clinical Practice: Parental Embodied Mentalizing Assessment (PEMA™)
Intensive Clinical Training Program for Professionals Working with Infants and Parents
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 30th January 2023 - 3rd February 2023
- 5 half days
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Interpersonal Psychotherapy Training (IPT)
This course will provide experienced mental health professionals with an introduction to the IPT model. The course will cover the knowledge competencies for IPT with depression and an introduction to the skills competencies.
- Online – live and self-directed learning (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 31st January 2023
- 6 days
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Measurement tools for understanding mental health need
This course gives an introduction to using standardised mental health and wellbeing tools in a school or college context. These tools can be used to better understand the needs of children and young people.
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 2nd February 2023
- 2 hours
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Mentalizing in Practice: Working with Parents and Babies
This course will explore Mentalizing and the importance of the parent/carer’s ability to mentalize effectively, to support the development of the infant’s mind, attachment to their parent/carer and capacity to reflect and to relate to others.
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 1st March 2023 - 9th March 2023
- 4 half days
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Delivering and evaluating effective mental health and wellbeing interventions in school: applying learning from HeadStart
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 2nd March 2023 - 9th March 2023
- Two half days (Part 1 and 2, compulsory to attend both days)
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Interpersonal Psychotherapy Training Refresher
The clinically focused workshop will provide a refresher for recently trained IPT therapists and will focus on how to implement the key objectives of the IPT model in routine practice. During this day we will give particular attention to key issues that are often difficult for therapists to feel confident in during initial casework, such as conducting a symptom review, finding a focus, negotiating useful and relevant goals, and maintaining links between the interpersonal context and symptoms across the session.
- Online - via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 3rd March 2023
- 1 day
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Mentalization-Based Treatment: Certificate course - practitioner level, (East Coast USA) - Eastern Standard Time (EST)
- Online – live and self-directed learning (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 3rd March 2023 - 4th March 2023
- 2 days live training and 4 hours self-guided content - online course
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Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy
DIT is designed to be implemented by therapists with an interest in and experience of psychoanalytic/dynamic psychotherapy. The workshop provides a basic introduction sufficient to enable participants to begin practicing this manualized treatment with supervision.
- Online - via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 23rd March 2023 - 18th May 2023
- 5 days
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Traumatic Bereavement: Working Therapeutically with Children and Young People
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 20th April 2023 - 27th April 2023
- 2 half days
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Mentalization-Based Treatment for Adolescents (MBT-A)
In this course people will be able to get an overview of MBT-A; an understanding of the specific complexities about working with adolescents; an understanding of the development of mentalization and the relevance of it in relationships and in the maintenance of a self esteem, affect regulation and impulse control. The course will also touch on issues such as working with self harm, working with trauma and family work.
- Online – live and self-directed learning (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 27th April 2023 - 12th May 2023
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CBT and Motivational Interviewing: Supporting Children and Young People to Engage in CBT
Motivational Interviewing (MI) ideas have been applied very successfully across a range of presenting difficulties and with populations who at times find it difficult to engage with help. This course will provide an overview of MI theory and techniques, particularly highlighting and teaching skills in those techniques that might help a CBT therapist engage a young person in different stages of therapy.
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 9th May 2023
- One day
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Assessment of Representational Risk on the Parent Development Interview
The aim of this course will be to provide participants with a broader multidimensional view on some of the other current theoretical and empirical ideas around the assessment of parental representations.
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 10th May 2023 - 12th May 2023
- Two days spread over three days
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Reflective Functioning Training on the Adult Attachment Interview
The Reflective Functioning on Adult Attachment Interviews course focuses on the coding of ‘reflective functioning’ of adult attachment interviews (AAI-RF). Coding of 'reflective functioning' is a way to operationalize the concept of mentalization, which Fonagy and colleagues have developed into a core theoretical concept in our model of normal and pathological emotional and self-development. The coding involves looking at thinking as revealed in interview narratives about important emotional attachment relationships, to see how far the person draws on a psychological model of motivation, of what happens in close relationships - to what extent they think in terms of their own and other people's minds, feelings, attitudes, intentions and so on, when they try to understand their experiences.
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 10th May 2023 - 12th May 2023
- 3 days
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Mentalization-Based Treatment: Reflective Parenting
This two-day training aims to introduce Reflective Parenting; a model of parenting based on theoretical ideas from mentalization and attachment theory.
- Online – live and self-directed learning (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 5th June 2023 - 12th June 2023
- 3 days
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Reflective Functioning Training on the Parent Development Interview
This three day course aims to provide an understanding of parental reflective functioning/mentalization and to become a reliable coder of RF of the Parent Development Interview.
- Online – live via Zoom (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 5th June 2023 - 9th June 2023
- One full day, four half days
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Mentalization-Based Treatment for Antisocial Personality Disorder (MBT-ASPD)
MBT has been adapted for the treatment of people with antisocial personality disorder (MBT-ASPD). This three-day training will outline how mentalizing can contribute to the understanding of ASPD and how mentalization based treatment can be used to treat people with ASPD in health care and criminal justice systems.
- Online – live and self-directed learning (Joining instructions will be sent to the email address you booked on with at least one working day before the event)
- 1st September 2023
- 3 days live training and 9 hours self-guided content - online course
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Anti-racism and mental health in schools e-learning
This free online training course is designed to improve education staff’s understanding of the impact of racism on mental health.
- Online
- Approx. 3 to 5 hours of self-guided content
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Mentalizing and Mentalization Based Treatment with Adults (MBT Adult): An Introduction
This self-guided training covers most of the theoretical knowledge that is currently taught on the MBT courses organised by the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families.
- Online
- Online Training Programme - 4 hours learning content
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Multi-family groups in schools e-learning
Multi-family groups in schools are a systemic intervention that help children and young people with emotional and/or behavioural challenges, by bringing together multiple families and education staff into one group. This e-learning gives education staff the knowledge needed to set up and run their own multi-family group in their setting.
- Online
- Online training programme - combination of two hours film and written materials equivalent to five hours learning content
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