Psychosocial disadvantages and adversity during (early) childhood and development determine mental health and wellbeing as well as behavioural adaptation in later stages of life. Recent studies evidence a high prevalence of psychopathology and behavioural difficulties in children and adolescents – especially amongst those subgroups characterised by social and emotional special needs requirements in child and youth welfare services. Thus, there is increased need for interventions that facilitate resilience and inclusion and a critical reflection of such approaches. Mentalising describes the capacity to ascribe meaning to one’s own behaviour and to that of others based upon intentional mental states. Those include feelings, wishes, beliefs and thoughts. The capacity to mentalise develops during childhood und matures over adolescence informed by an individual’s attachment patterns and relational experiences. The capacity is a fundamental building block for the development of the self and for affect regulation. Prolonged exposure to stress may impair mentalising, temporarily or in a sustained fashion (trauma). Under heightened arousal (stress) it becomes increasingly impossibly for individuals to take another person’s perspective and to achieve a differentiated and reflective way of problem solving. Children and adolescents with a reduced capacity to mentalise or those with particular vulnerability to stress often tend to express challenging behaviours in school, at home with their families or with peers. This is thought to critically impact social learning and, in turn, school attainment, social participation and resilience. It is, thus, vital to better understand such behaviour and psychosocial stress. The mentalisation approach is an innovation conceptualisation that has roots in theory of mind, attachment theory and psychoanalysis. The successful application of the concept in psychiatry and psychotherapy has inspired extensions into other fields that have enabled the discovery of key aspects underpinning affect regulation, mindfulness and attention, interpersonal behaviour and social learning. This new understanding has recently been introduced and increasingly informed educational settings. This can facilitate dealing with psychosocial stressors, promote social participation, education and wellbeing. Furthermore, mentalising also fosters mental health and prevents burn out in professionals working in pedagogical fields. Our international and interdisciplinary group now proposes to develop a mentalisation-based curriculum to train those educational professionals with the aim to increase their resilience, improve their reflective capacities to understand and deal with challenging behaviour in a way that directly informs daily practise. The project will lead to the development of a pilot curriculum entitled „Mentalisation Training for Professionals in Pedagogical Fields“ (primary and secondary school, early intervention and pre-school context and social education) and it will thereby contribute to the professionalization of those working in educational settings. Attendees of the training increase their understanding of the important of mental states for successful interpersonal relationships in pedagogical settings and will gain an deepened understanding of how to faciliate epistemic trust and mentalising with regard to enhancing socio-cognitive learning and developmetal processes in groups. The integrated reflective practice that will be run in parallel leads to a better detection and dealing with stress and conflict and therefore will improve inclusion-centred education, particularly of children and youth from disadvantaged backgrounds. As a result it will increase and maintain wellbeing of children and adolescents as well as that of professionals. The teaching material produced and the results and insights from the accompanying evaluation of the training will be prepared as intellectual output and disseminated to allow adaptation and use across the EU. train the trainer workshops for interested professionals will be used in order to inform, guide and support others to implement the curriculum and training in their institutions. Furthermore, academics and faculty will be supported in how the resulting curriculum and teaching material can be integrated into their university trainings of future professionals.
The project serves the development and implementation of a model curriculum "Mentalization training for educational professionals" (in schools, elementary education, social work) and is intended to contribute to inclusion and the professionalisation of pedagogical professionals. The following goals were achieved: 1. the graduates of the training know the importance of mental states for the shaping of relationships in pedagogical fields and have a deeper understanding of the fostering of epistemic trust, mentalizing and social learning and development processes in groups. Professional self-awareness promotes the recognition and handling of stress and conflicts and contributes to inclusive education and participation of (disadvantaged) children and young people and to maintaining the health of the children and young people as well as the professionals. The reflection on the organisation and framework conditions complements and deepens the examination of one's own professionalism. 2. the teaching materials and teaching films developed as well as the first evaluation results were processed and made accessible to interested professionals and university teachers (www.mentede.eu). 3. in a 'train the trainer' seminar, particularly committed and experienced graduates of the mentalization training were supported to carry out further training on the mentalization approach in their institution and to act as multipliers of the curriculum. Likewise, interested university teachers are informed about how the teaching contents can be integrated into the university training of educational specialists.
With our innovative approach mentalization based education, future educational professionals are to be trained. This professionalisation approach takes into account the need for health-, resilience- and inclusion-promoting approaches and their critical reflection in the various educational fields of action. Children and adolescents with impairments in mentalizing ability or special stress vulnerability often show challenging behaviour at school, in their families or towards peers. Current studies show a high prevalence of mental disorders and behavioural problems in children and adolescents, especially in subgroups of children with social-emotional support needs or in child and youth welfare. One requirement for educational professionals is therefore to better understand this behaviour and to be able to better regulate psychosocial stress, so that the children and young people can also better understand and regulate their behaviour, the latter being a prerequisite for social learning and influencing success at school, social participation and resilience. The educators' ability to mentalize thus contributes to the young people's mental health, motivation and social participation. It can also support the commitment of the educational staff and prevent burnout.