When facilitating parties to get to underlying interests, it is not so much that you ask a very powerful underlying interests mediation question of them, but that you ask a simple mediation question about that which matters to them. The key areas about which to ask the best mediation questions are values or beliefs, worries, concerns, impact and any emotions that arise for them. If their sense of status, certainty, or autonomy has been affected, if they feel that something is not fair or if their connection with others has been impacted, these are all warnings that something deep has been impacted and this is where a mediator needs to ask exploratory questions, gently.