Exploring and Elaborating — Mentalization-Based Treatment

A technique of active joint inquiry into the client's inner world, aimed at widening and deepening the understanding of one's own mental states. The therapist helps the client move from a surface description of events to a multi-layered understanding of the linked thoughts, feelings, and motives — both their own and other people's. This is not interpretation, but a joint process of "digging up" meaning.

Step-by-step guide

Start with what the client has already said and ask them to tell more: "Tell me more about this feeling"
Ask open questions: "How did it feel?", "What was happening inside you?"
Inquire into multiple perspectives: "And what do you think they felt at that moment?"
Widen the context: "Has something similar happened to you before?"
Help the client to notice the links between feelings, thoughts, and actions
Support the process of inquiry, even if it leads to uncertainty

When to use

When the client is stable and capable of reflection (low/moderate level of arousal)
When the client describes the situation superficially, without emotional depth
When a new theme or pattern arises that is worth inquiring into

Key phrases

Tell me more about this. What exactly did you feel?

Follow-up questions

What do you think was happening in his head at that moment?

And were there other moments in your life when you felt something similar?

Alternative phrasings

This is interesting. Let us stay here a little longer.

You mentioned that you felt emptiness. Can you describe this sensation in more detail?

Warnings

⚠️ Do not interrogate — the inquiry must be joint and curious
⚠️ Watch the level of arousal — if the inquiry causes distress, return to validation
⚠️ Do not rush the client to conclusions — the value is in the very process of inquiry

Source: Bateman A.W. Fonagy P. (2016). Mentalization-Based Treatment for Personality Disorders