Australia: Explore mentalising, attachment, and personality development in CPD psychology courses. Connect MBT with DBT.
Australian psychologists and counsellors completing the mentalising series will find Part 3 a practical bridge from theory to clinical work. Dr Ella Brent identifies how insecure attachment affects mentalising and personality formation, and uses a mentalisation framework to distinguish between personality disorder clusters. Illustrative case examples show how early relational experiences contribute to different personality organisations. She explains Mentalisation-Based Treatment, developed by Bateman and Fonagy, and how it aligns with Dialectical Behaviour Therapy from Marsha Linehan. Approved by the Australian Counselling Association for CPD hours, the course supports assessment and treatment planning with adults and adolescents.
In the concluding talk of this three-part series, clinical psychologist Dr. Ella Brent examines how disruptions in early attachment relationships can hinder the development of key psychological capacities, including affect regulation, attention control, and mentalising. Building on foundational material presented in Parts 1 and 2, this session focuses on the consequences of insecure attachment in the caregiver-child dyad and how these relational patterns may impair mentalising development.
Through illustrative case examples, Dr. Brent explores how inconsistent, misattuned, or invalidating caregiving may result in maladaptive personality development. The talk outlines the continuum from early relational disruptions to the emergence of personality vulnerabilities and disorders, drawing connections between impaired mentalising and common personality organisation clusters, including borderline, dependent, histrionic, narcissistic, schizoid, and antisocial presentations.
This talk further differentiates Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT), developed by Anthony Bateman and Peter Fonagy, from but aligned with Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), developed by Marsha Linehan. Clinicians will gain practical and theoretical tools to recognise, assess, and respond to clients with impaired mentalisation capacities in both adult and adolescent populations.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this talk, participants will be able to:
Identify the developmental impact of insecure attachment on mentalising and personality formation
Describe how early relational experiences contribute to a range of personality organisations
Distinguish between personality disorder clusters using a mentalisation framework
Understand the clinical applications of MBT and its relationship to DBT
Integrate attachment and mentalisation models into assessment and treatment planning