Mentalization skills are essential for the development and maintenance of effective and adaptive social relationships.

The “Thinking Thoughts” project supports the hypothesis that a “mentalizing community”, built on the support of the mentalization skills of its members, favors the creation of a social network that is more functional in supporting the individual by welcoming him in adaptive interpersonal exchanges throughout his life. Starting from this hypothesis, children, if inserted in these types of communities, can develop more specifically diversified strategies to react to the difficulties of their life, thus increasing their resilience. This approach is also in line with the recent reflection on resilience within the framework of developmental systems, which states, among other things, that changes tend to spread across the different domains and levels of a given system, through their interaction.

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The “Thinking Thoughts” project fits precisely into this perspective: it addresses the issue of mentalization, resilience, the ability to put oneself in someone else's shoes using simple language, metaphors, images and videos. The objectives of the training are the introduction and explanation of the key concepts and methods of the “Thinking Thoughts” project, to involve teachers in the direct experience of these methods and reflect together on how to apply them in the classroom with children to promote social competence.

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The program is based on consolidated studies, conducted for years also within the Research Unit on the Theory of Mind, which show how bullying, inappropriate behavior, difficulties in managing one's emotions and thoughts can be significantly reduced by proposing activities that generate greater awareness and curiosity towards one's own and other people's way of “functioning”.