Explore mentalising origins in South Africa. Learn how caregiver responsiveness impacts attachment, personality, and psychotherapy courses.
In this second course of a three-part series, Dr Ella Brent helps South African psychologists understand how mentalising develops along typical and disrupted pathways. Building on Part 1, she explores how caregiver responsiveness shapes a child's emotional regulation, attention and impulse control. Using Bowlby's attachment theory, she contrasts secure attachment and contingent caregiving with insecure patterns, and explains how contingent care lays the groundwork for mentalisation. The course links reflective functioning to attentional control and to therapies such as DBT and MBT. It is accredited by the HPCSA for CPD points and suits clinicians working with emotional dysregulation or trauma histories.
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