Understand mentalising origins in the UK. Explore caregiver roles in attachment, personality, and psychotherapy courses.
This second course in a three-part series gives UK psychologists a closer look at how mentalising develops and what happens when development is disrupted. Dr Ella Brent expands on Part 1 by examining the role of caregiver responsiveness in a child's affect regulation, attention and impulse control. With reference to Bowlby, she compares secure attachment, marked by proximity-seeking and contingent responses, with insecure patterns. She then shows how reflective functioning underpins attentional control and connects these ideas to DBT and MBT. It can be logged as a learning activity in an HCPC CPD record.
This second talk in a three-part series continues to explore the development of mentalising capacities across both typical and disrupted developmental pathways. Dr. Ella Brent expands upon the foundational ideas introduced in Part 1, delving into the role of caregiver responsiveness in the development of a child’s emotional regulation, attention, and impulse control.
Drawing on John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory, the lecture contrasts secure attachment—characterised by proximity-seeking and contingent caregiver responses—with patterns seen in insecure attachment, highlighting how these differing relational cycles impact emotional development. Dr. Brent explains how contingent caregiving not only supports affect regulation but also lays the groundwork for the emergence of mentalisation—the ability to understand internal mental states in oneself and others.
The talk further explores how the development of reflective functioning is foundational for attentional control and impulse regulation, linking these capacities to therapeutic models such as Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and Mentalization-Based Therapy (MBT). The session provides valuable clinical insight for psychologists and mental health professionals working with individuals with personality vulnerabilities, emotional dysregulation, or trauma histories.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this talk, participants will be able to:
Explain how contingent caregiver responses support the development of mentalising capacities
Identify the relational patterns associated with insecure attachment and their impact on affect regulation
Describe the relationship between mentalisation, attention, and impulse control
Understand how these developmental processes inform the clinical mechanisms of DBT and MBT
Apply attachment-informed mentalisation models to therapeutic work with clients across developmental stages