This is one day HYBRID workshop with Professor Patrick Luyten that will be delivered in Birmingham (and Online) on 12th October 2026

This is a one day HYBRID workshop that will take place on 12th October 2026 in Birmingham (with livestream access), and is part of our 15th International Conference.

For more information about our conference program please visit:

https://www.compassionatemind.co.uk/cmf-conference-2026

Timings

All timings are according to UK Time

9.30 to 16.30 BST

Venue

Millenium Point

Curzon St, Birmingham B4 7AP

Pricing Face to Face

Early Bird: £185.00 (ends on the 31st July 2026)

Student Rate: £145.00

Member Rate: £ 175.00

Emerging Country: £105.00

Standard Rate: £205.00

Pricing Online

Early Bird: £125.00 (ends on the 31st July 2026)

Student Rate: £105.00

Member Rate: £ 115.00

Emerging Country: £75.00

Standard Rate: £145.00

For those in difficult financial circumstances, or to pay in instalments or via invoice, please contact finance@compassionatemind.co.uk

About the workshop

Complex trauma is associated with pervasive disturbances in affect regulation, self and interpersonal functioning. Individuals with a history of complex trauma frequently struggle with difficulties in understanding their own and others’ mental states, while also experiencing intense shame, self-criticism, and threat-based responses that maintain psychological distress across diagnostic categories.

This workshop explores the integration of mentalizing and compassion as complementary processes in the treatment of complex trauma. In this workshop I will first provide an overview of key principles of Trauma-Focused Mentalization-Based Treatment (MBT-TF), a treatment approach that aims to restore and strengthen mentalizing capacities and epistemic trust, two psychological capacities that are often compromised in the context of traumatic experiences and attachment disruptions. Core treatment principles, including the maintenance of a mentalizing stance, regulation of arousal, and the gradual exploration of traumatic experiences within a relational framework, will be discussed.

Building on this foundation, the workshop will examine compassion as a transdiagnostic therapeutic process that may enhance trauma recovery. Drawing on principles from Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), we will consider how cultivating compassion for self and others can address shame, self-criticism, and persistent threat responses. Conceptual links between mentalizing and compassion will be explored, highlighting how both approaches may promote mentalizing, epistemic trust, emotion regulation, interpersonal connectedness, and a more coherent sense of self.

Clinical examples and practical applications based on participants’ own therapeutic work will be used to illustrate these principles.

Key references

Luyten, P., Campbell, C., Allison, E., & Fonagy, P. (2020). The mentalizing approach to psychopathology: State of the art and future directions. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 16, 297-325. doi: 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-071919-015355

Luyten, P., Campbell, C., & Fonagy, P. (2020). Borderline personality disorder, complex trauma, and problems with self and identity: A social-communicative approach. Journal of Personality, 88, 88-105. doi: 10.1111/jopy.12483

Smits, M. L., de Vos, J., Rüfenacht, E., Nijssens, L., Shaverin, L., Nolte, T., Luyten, P., Fonagy, P., & Bateman, A. (2024). Breaking the cycle with trauma-focused mentalization-based treatment: theory and practice of a trauma-focused group intervention. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1426092. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1426092

Workshop Leader

Patrick Luyten, PhD is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven (Belgium) and Professor of Psychodynamic Psychology at the Research Department of Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology, University College London (UK). He is also a Visiting Professor at the Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT, USA.

His main research interests are disorders from the affective spectrum (i.e., depression and stress- and pain-related disorders), and personality disorders. In both areas he is involved in basic research and in interventional research. He heads a treatment service for patients with depression and functional somatic disorders in PraxisP, the treatment center of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences from the KU Leuven, Belgium.

He recently published the Cambridge guide to mentalization-based treatment (MBT) with Anthony Bateman, Peter Fonagy, Chloe Campbell, and Martin Debbané (2023), and Brief Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy: A Clinician’s Guide (2024, Oxford University Press), with Alessandra Lemma, Mary Hepworth, Peter Fonagy and Deborah Abrahams, and Therapeutic Work for Children with Complex Trauma: A Three-track Psychodynamic Approach (2024, Taylor and Francis), with Nicole Vliegen, Eileen Tang, Nick Midgley and Peter Fonagy.

Description supplied by the event organiser.