Motivational Interviewing

Ability

A form of client preparatory change talk that reflects perceived personal capability of making a change.

Absolute Worth

Prizing the inherent value and potential of every human being.

Acceptance

A component of MI spirit that communicates absolute worth, accurate empathy, affirmation, and autonomy support; The counselor accepts the individual’s decisions without judgement, honouring their worth and autonomy

Accurate Empathy

The skill of perceiving and reflecting back another person’s meaning.

Activation Language

A form of client mobilizing change talk that expresses disposition toward action but falls short of commitment.

Ambivalence

The simultaneous presence of competing motivations for and against change; Simultaneously wanting and not wanting something, or wanting two incompatible things

Amplified Reflection

A response reflecting the client’s content with greater intensity than previously expressed.

Autonomy Support

Accepting and confirming the client’s right to self-determination and choice.

Change Goal

A specific target for change in motivational interviewing.

Change Plan

A specific scheme to implement a change goal.

Change Talk

Any client speech that favors movement toward a particular change goal. Self-expressed language that is an argument for change

Client-centered Counseling

A therapeutic approach where clients explore their own experience within a supportive relationship.

Commitment Language

A form of mobilizing change talk reflecting an intention to carry out change.

Compassion

A central component of MI spirit where the interviewer prioritizes the client’s needs.

Decisional Balance

A technique exploring both pros and cons of change.

Desire

A form of client preparatory change talk reflecting a preference for change.

Engaging

The process of establishing a mutually trusting helping relationship.

Eliciting

An interviewer response that prompts the client to provide further insight.

Evocation

A component of MI where the interviewer elicits the client’s own perspectives and motivation.

Expert Trap

The clinical error of assuming the counselor has the best answers to the client’s problems.

Mobilizing Change Talk

A subtype of change talk that expresses an intention to change.

Motivational Interviewing

A collaborative conversation style for strengthening a person’s motivation and commitment to change.

Need

A form of client preparatory change talk expressing an imperative for change.

OARS

A set of client-centered communication skills: Open question, Affirmation, Reflection, and Summary.

Resistance

Interpersonal behavior that reflects dissonance in the working relationship.

Self-Efficacy

A client’s perceived ability to achieve a particular goal.

Sustain Talk

Any client speech that favors status quo rather than movement toward a change goal.

Transtheoretical Model

A model of change describing stages of change individuals typically pass through.

Undershooting

A reflection that diminishes or understates the intensity of the content expressed by a client.

Values

A person’s core goals or standards that provide meaning and direction in life.

Working Alliance

The quality of the collaborative relationship between client and counselor.

4 Processes of MI

Engaging, Focusing, Evoking, Planning

Focusing

Involves developing and maintaining a specific direction in the conversation about change. The process of clarifying a goal or direction for change.

Evoking

Pertains to eliciting the clients own motivation for change

Planning

Involves developing commitment and a specific plan of action

Partnership

Equality between the counselor and the client, with no one holding superior power or control

Compassion

Keeping the individual’s best interests at heart, actively promoting their welfare and prioritizing their needs

Evocation

Drawing out the individual’s own motivations and ideas rather than imposing external ones

Open-ended Questions

Inviting the client to think and provide broad latitude in responding, fostering conversation

Affirmations

Recognizing a client’s strengths and efforts, supporting engagement and avoiding the assessment trap. Accentuation of the positive, acknowledging a person’s strengths and efforts.

Reflective Listening

Demonstrating empathy and ensuring clear communication by confirming your understanding of the client’s message

Summaries

Pull together several elements a client has communicated, shining a light on their experiences and highlighting ambivalence

Sustain Talk

Self-expressed language that is an argument against change and favours the status quo

Four types of Ambivalence

approach/approach, avoidance/avoidance, approach/avoidance, and double approach/avoidance

The Importance Ruler

Utilizing a scale from 0 to 10 to assess the importance a client places on changing

Confidence ruler

Using a scale from 0 to 10 to measure a clients confidence in their ability to change

Querying Extremes

Asking about best and worst case scenerios

Looking Back

Encourages clients to remember times before the problem emerged

Looking Forward

Helps clients envision a changed future

Gordon’s Roadblocks

Common communication styles that hinder effective counselling, such as ordering, warning advising, persuading, moralizing, judging, agreeing, shaming, interpreting, reassuring, questioning, and distracting

The Assessment Trap

Asking excessive questions and gathering information without building rapport

The Premature Focus Trap

Jumping to a specific behaviour change before understanding the client’s broader concerns

The Chat Trap

Engaging in superficial conversation rather than focusing on the change

The Labelling Trap

Assigning labels to the client

The Blaming Trap

Blaming the client for their behaviour

Cultural Humility

A continuous process of self-reflection and critique, understanding individual’s experiences in the context of power differences, and challenging power imbalances

Critical Allyship

Taking active steps to learn about systems of inequality, stepping back to allow space for marginalized voices, and working for change at systemic and interpersonal levels

Ask-Tell-Ask

Providing informations in MI, involving asking for permission, providing information neutrally, and then eliciting the clients response

Therapeutic Alliance

The establishment of a trusting relationship, agreement on treatment goals, and collaboration on tasks to reach those goals

Intersectionality

The interconnected nature of social categorization such as race, class, and gender, creating overlapping systems of discrimination or disadvantage

The Righting Reflex

The tendency to try to fix what seems wrong with people by offering advice and solutions

Approach/Approach

Two positive choices/ a win-win situation

Avoidance/Avoidance

Two negative or unpleasant choices/ representing the lesser of two evils

Approach/Avoidance

One choice that has both positives and negatives associated with it

Double Approach/Avoidance

Two options that each have both positive and negative aspects. Leaning towards one option make the benefits of the other more salient, and vice versa

Ability

A form of client preparatory change talk that reflects perceived personal capability of making a change; typical words include can, could, and able.