AMBIT Client Skills Workshop: Applying Mentalizing in Face-to-Face Client Work
The AMBIT client skills workshops are for AMBIT-trained individuals or teams and provide evidence-based theory and practical skills for working with specific issues, in AMBIT-influenced ways.
About this training
This workshop aims to develop worker skills in applying mentalizing in face-to-face client work when out ‘in the field’ with clients. The focus is on the ‘multi-modal worker’ who will be drawing on a range of approaches and techniques, and often in various settings. The emphasis in this session is on applying mentalizing and the mentalizing stance in straightforward and practical ways for workers with a wide range of experience.
This is a live online training, with trainers present throughout. The training consists of an engaging combination of live teaching, group discussion, skills practice, and interactive online activities.
Aims of the training
To recognise when mentalizing is present in a client interaction;
To recognise when mentalizing is lost in client interactions (both in the client and the worker);
To practice and develop practical techniques to foster mentalizing in client interactions and regain mentalizing when it is (inevitably) lost;
To share learning and practice examples using the AMBIT wiki manual.
Who is this training for?
AMBIT trained workers, particularly relevant for workers who may not have formal professional training but who carry out face-to-face client work across a wide range of settings, such as health, education, social care, youth work, criminal justice and charities.
AMBIT training could have been provided directly by the Anna Freud Centre or local trainers.
Workers that would like practical mentalization-based skills and ideas to apply in their face-to-face work with clients of any age group.
James Fairbairn
Joint Deputy Programme Director
James is joint Deputy Director for the AMBIT programme and is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist. Since qualifying in 2007, James has worked primarily within the NHS in Child and Adolescent Mental health Services (CAMHS) in London, then in Cambridgeshire. James first became connected with AMBIT in 2011 as the lead psychologist in a regional adolescent inpatient service, helping develop the AMBIT model on the unit, then moving into training others in the approach. James is a systemic practitioner and is particularly interested in working with people with multiple needs, alongside supporting the systems around them to improve the help on offer. James leads on the evaluation of the AMBIT program and jointly leads the AMBIT international study group. James continues to work in NHS CAMHS and in private practice.
Dr Peter Fuggle
Co-founder of AMBIT and Consultant to the Programme and Community Development Lead
Peter is a clinical psychologist who has worked in child mental health throughout his career. He currently works as a Consultant to the AMBIT team at Anna Freud in London. He worked for many years in the NHS in London as Clinical Director of Islington CAMHS, and was particularly concerned about the children and young people with major needs who did not come to the main services that were provided. This interest led him to join a group at Anna Freud who were concerned about the same issue, which resulted in the development of the AMBIT approach. He has been involved in publishing two books on AMBIT. Most of his time now is spent on supervision, training and writing.
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