Mentalization-Based Treatment: Basic Training (Canada) - Eastern Standard Time (EST)

About this course

The new MBT Basic Training one-month course is made up of 3 days of live, instructor-led content (including breaks) and 21 hours of self-guided content - attendees will be required to do various tasks before, in-between and after the live, instructor-led sessions.

Please note that this training is delivered in partnership with Karin Ensink who leads our MBT International Training Centre in Canada. The training will take place online in Eastern Standard Time (EST).

The live day sessions will run on 26th, 27th and 28th April 2023. You will receive 1 month access to our self-guided online training. Access to this platform will be provided on 27th March 2023.

Mentalizing refers to our ability to attend to, and understand our own actions and those of others on the basis of, mental states. This is the focus of MBT, initially developed by Drs. Anthony Bateman and Peter Fonagy for the treatment of borderline personality disorder (BPD) but now used on a wide range of disorders. MBT was developed based on studies of early childhood development and attachment. In this course, participants will learn how to implement MBT techniques within their clinical practice as a specialist treatment.

Common clinical situations are discussed and ‘role played’ to practice skills. MBT requires therapists to focus on the patient’s mental state and on their understanding of interactions with the patient. The therapist takes a ‘not knowing’ stance and yet explicitly develops with the patient or family alternative perspectives about what is happening. Participants will learn how to use their own experiences of the patient as a way of increasing mentalizing within therapeutic encounters. The course considers techniques, such as clarification, challenge and basic mentalizing in the context of some of the common clinical scenarios encountered in treatment with patients.

This workshop will equip participants to understand:

• How mentalizing handicaps derive from early parent-child interactions
• How mentalizing failures reflect and cause insecure attachments
• How psychotherapeutic interventions are efforts to correct mentalizing & attachment vulnerabilities

Educational Objectives:

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the mentalizing problems of BPD
• Recognize mentalizing and non-mentalizing interventions
• Develop and maintain a mentalizing therapeutic stance
• Use basic mentalizing techniques in their everyday clinical work in group and individual psychotherapy

Who is this course suitable for?

This workshop is suitable for mental health and other professionals who are interested in the treatment of personality disorder.

Applicants for the basic entry training course must meet the following pre-entry criteria:

1. They should be qualified health professionals such as Mental Health Nurses, Occupational Therapists, Clinical/Counselling Psychologists, Psychiatrists and Social Workers, Psychotherapists.
2. They will have undertaken a course of study, for example the KUF for personality disorder, and have a good working knowledge of theories underpinning the development of personality. This will cover psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, biological, systemic and social approaches.
3. They will have a minimum of 1 years’ experience working therapeutically with people with personality disorder in teams or in individual or group work.
4. They will have undertaken supervised practice and be committed to professional standards and practice within an ethical framework.
5. It is desirable that they have personal experience of psychotherapy or counselling.

It is a requirement that attendees of this training must complete the "Mentalizing and Mentalization Based Treatment with Adults (MBT Adult) – An Introduction" online course before the training start date. You will be given access to the this training one month before the training start date. Please note access to the training will be granted once full payment is received. The Online training consists of a series of short videos that span four hours and cover the theory of MBT and so it is essential that you watch these prior to the training. If you do not complete these, you will not have the theoretical knowledge to get the most out of the training you are scheduled to attend. The content of the Online training will not be covered in the in-person training. If, for any reason, you require access to the Online training sooner than one month prior to the training start date, please let us know and we will be able to grant you access. Please note that training places must be paid for in order to be granted access to the Online training.

This training is being delivered by Karin Ensink who leads our MBT International Training Centre in Canada.