Mentalizing

AMBIT Mentalizing is at the core of AMBIT. AMBIT is an approach for helping people who have multiple needs and who may have reasons to find it difficult to trust in helping services. AMBIT is a whole-team or whole-system approach. … Read More

Early experience The extent to which we have been supported to mentalize, starting from our early childhood experiences Trauma If we’ve experienced trauma, our limbic system (fight, flight or freeze response) might be activated more easily Emotion Whatever our base … Read More

What sorts of thinking can people do when they are mentalizing?

Please watch the video below, Epistemic Trust for AMBIT, which provides a brief introduction to the theory of epistemic trust. Epistemic trust

Empathy There is a difference between empathy and sympathy!! Empathy allows for the expression of compassion. Empathy is not connecting to an experience, its connecting to the emotions that underpin an experience Please watch the video below, Brené Brown on … Read More

Please watch the videos below and identify the non-mentalizing states of mind

Watch the video below ‘When mentalizing goes offline‘ published by the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families Characteristics of ineffective mentalizing Being certain – where actually it’s not possible to always know what others are thinking/feeling or what … Read More

We remember that minds are not see through, so we don’t know what is going on in other people’s minds until we have checked this out. We are good at making guesses and we do so accurately a lot of … Read More

Please watch the video below, ‘What is Mentalizing?‘ published by the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families Please watch the video below, ‘What is Mentalizing & Why Do It with Jon G. Allen, PhD‘

Please watch the video below, ‘Describing Mentalizing to others‘

Being open to being wrong; flexible, willing to change our mind when we learn more about another’s perspective. Recognising the limits to our knowing and being open with others about that. Watch the video below Why Intellectual Humility Matters, published … Read More

An indication that someone is mentalizing is when it is evident that they are holding onto a sense that behaviour is not only driven by minds, but is grounded in context – it is possible to understand the “story” behind … Read More

When we are mentalizing we have an awareness that the way that feelings impact on thinking – in both ourselves and others. We are aware that if emotions become too intense, we are at risk of losing our capacity to … Read More

We recognise that things look different depending on our lens or perspective – there is no “one way” of looking at something. When we are not experiencing intense levels of emotion, we are quite good at remembering that things can … Read More

Albert Einstein famously said, I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious. Curiosity or inquisitiveness is a marker of mentalizing – when we are trying to make sense of things, or trying to understand things. When we are … Read More