Mentalizing Narratives — Mentalization-Based Treatment

A technique of joint creation of a coherent, meaningful narrative about the client's life with a focus on mental states. In MBT the case formulation is developed jointly and gradually becomes the client's "property". A mentalizing narrative is a story in which people's behavior becomes understandable through their thoughts, feelings, and motives. It helps the client to build a whole, non-contradictory image of themselves.

Step-by-step guide

At the start of therapy jointly identify the key themes and patterns: "Let us try to understand together what usually happens when you feel bad"
Help the client to describe situations through mental states: "What did you feel? What, in your view, did mother feel?"
Link the current patterns with the life history
Gradually form a joint narrative about how the life history led to the current difficulties
Regularly come back to the narrative and update it
Encourage the client to take "authorship" of the narrative: "How would you yourself describe this pattern?"

When to use

At the start of therapy — when building the case formulation
When new material appears that changes the understanding of the client's patterns
When the client finds it hard to see the link between the past and the present

Key phrases

If I understand your story correctly, when you were small, you had to. And now, when someone.

Follow-up questions

It seems to me we are starting to see a pattern. What do you think?

Let us update our common picture. What new have we understood in the last few weeks?

Alternative phrasings

How would you yourself tell the story of how this began?

Warnings

⚠️ The narrative must be joint, not imposed by the therapist
⚠️ Do not rush with the formulation — it forms gradually
⚠️ The narrative must not be rigid — it changes as therapy unfolds
⚠️ Avoid intellectualized stories without emotional content

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