THE MENTALIZING CONNECTIONS:
A COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS
PARTNERS IN MENTALIZATION EDUCATION
Ellenhorn and the Mentalizing Initiative are proud to join forces in 2025 to bring cutting-edge education in Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT) and mentalizing principles to the West Coast and beyond.
This partnership unites two leaders in mental health innovation with a shared mission: to expand the use of empirically supported mentalization practices and position mentalization-based approaches at the forefront of effective mental health treatment. Together, we aim to empower clinicians with the tools and insights needed to foster reflective capacities, promote self-awareness, and strengthen relational stability through interpersonal and attachment-based methods.
WEBINARS
EVENTS
IN-PERSON LEARNING
CONSULTATION
FEATURED EVENTS:
JOIN US THROUGHOUT 2025 FOR:
MENTALIZATION 101 WEBINAR
January 9, 2025 | 10 AM (PST) | On Zoom
If you're interested in joining our community, Mentalizing Connections: A Community of Learners, but feel like you need a Mentalization 101 course or a brief refresher, we invite you to attend our free one-hour webinar: Mentalization 101. In this webinar, we will cover the theoretical background of mentalization, explore the why, how, and who of mentalizing, and provide practical and clinical examples. We’ll also help you recognize non-mentalizing behaviors in yourselves and others. This lecture will give you the foundational knowledge you need to join Mentalizing Connections: A Community of Learners with confidence and readiness to engage fully in our community.
MENTALIZING INFORMED FAMILY SYSTEMS (MIST) WITH MIST CREATOR DR. EIA ASEN AND DR. EMMA MOORE
A 6 session bi-weekly online course with MIST creator Professor Eia Asen and Dr. Emma Moore. MIST is a therapeutic approach that integrates the principles of mentalization-based therapy (MBT) with the framework of family systems theory, aiming to improve family dynamics by helping members better understand and interpret each other's thoughts, feelings, and motivations within the family context, particularly during emotionally charged situations.
January 21, 2025 | 8 AM - 10 AM (PST) | Six online sessions starting 1/21/25
MENTALIZING CONNECTIONS: A COMMUNITY OF LEARNERS
February 12, 26 | March 12, 26 | April 9, 23
12 PM PST On Zoom
Ellenhorn is proud to partner with the Mentalizing Initiative, Silver Hill, and the Lindner Center of Hope to bring you a comprehensive exploration of Mentalization-Based Therapy (MBT). Designed for mental health professionals eager to enhance their clinical expertise, this three-month webinar series offers a deep dive into the transformative potential of mentalization practices.
Explore how MBT goes beyond skill-based approaches like DBT by fostering reflective capacities and promoting lasting self-awareness and relational stability. Led by thought leaders and experts from esteemed organizations, each session will illuminate how mentalization can be applied across therapy, leadership, and education to strengthen connections with self and others.
Gain 1.0 CE credit per one-hour session, with a total of 6.0 credits available for attending all six webinars.
MBT SUPERVISION GROUPS
Starting February 2025 |Bi-Weekly Meetings
This Mentalizing Initiative offers interactive MBT group supervision geared towards certification, emphasizing mentalizing techniques in clinical practice ideal for deepening understanding of mentalizing interventions and skills. Participants receive clinical consultation from a mentalizing perspective. These consultation groups meet the MBT supervision requirement for MBT Practitioner certification.
AMBIT Workshop: Applications of Mentalization for Teams, Supervisors and Leadership
May 22, 2025 | 9 AM - 3 PM (PST)
New Center for Psychoanalysis, Los Angeles
This AMBIT (Adaptive Mentalization-Based Integrative Treatment) workshop will feature a blend of academic lectures and interactive skill-building activities, and attendees will leave equipped with AMBIT techniques they can immediately put into practice. The AMBIT system of care has shown to be effective for clients who struggle with complex relationships with trust, change, and hope, and the workers that support them. This workshop will be beneficial for practitioners wo want to enhance their ability to support themselves, their teams and their colleagues through a mentalization-based approach.
MBT - TRAUMA FOCUSED (MBT-TF) ONLINE WORKSHOP
Summer 2025 (Date TBD)
The MBT-TF workshop introduces clinicians to a structured, phased approachthat specifically focuses on applying MBT principles to treat individuals experiencing significant trauma, including the management of PTSD symptoms, hypervigilance, and relational difficulties starting with stabilization and safety building, then moving on to trauma processing, and finally integrating experiences and developing coping mechanisms.
MBT - G (GROUP) ONLINE WORKSHOP
Summer 2025 (Date TBD)
MBT group therapy differs from other group therapies by placing a primary focus on enhancing mentalizing capacities rather than solely focusing on symptom management or skill development like in other therapies like DBT; clinicians learn the strategies, interventions and how to use the dynamic withing the group itself foster a mentalizing capacity, allowing individuals to learn how to better interpret their own and others' behaviors within the group setting.
MBT-BASIC & MBT-PRACTITIONER TRAINING
Fall 2025 (Date TBD)
The Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT) Basic Training course is a 3 day intensive training that introduces and instructs clinicians on the implementation of MBT in treating a variety of disorders. Originally developed to treat boderline personality disorder, MBT is now used to treat many other disorders, including antisocial personality disorder, eating disorders, and trauma, NPD, children, and families.
The MBT Practitioner is a 2 day course is for clinicians who have already completed the basic MBT and training course with an approved MBT Global Network partner, and aims to enhance MBT clinical skills through hands-on common clinical case presentations through demonstrations and role plays. Clinicians may be asked to demonstrate use of basic MBT interventions via video/audio and other role play exercises. Clinicians are expected to have been using mentalizing skills in everyday practice and to have participated in MBT supervision with a certified MBT supervisor.