Glossary of Motivational Interviewing Terms

Flashcards for Motivational Interviewing Terms

Ability

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

Absolute Worth

One of four aspects of acceptance as a component of MI spirit, prizing the inherent value and potential of every human being

Acceptance

One of four central components of the underlying spirit of MI by which the interviewer communicates absolute worth, accurate empathy, affirmation and autonomy support

Accurate Empathy

The skill of perceiving and reflecting back another person’s meaning; one of four aspects of acceptance as a component of MI spirit

Activation Language

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

Affirmation

One of four aspects of acceptance as a component of MI spirit, by which the counselor accentuates the positive, seeking and acknowledging a person’s strengths and efforts

Affirming

An interviewer statement valuing a positive client attribute or behavior

Agenda Mapping

A short meta-conversation in which you step back with the client to consider the way ahead

Agreement with a Twist

A reflection, affirmation, or accord followed by a reframe

Ambivalence

The simultaneous presence of competing motivations for and against change

Amplified Reflection

A response in which the interviewer reflects back the client’s content with greater intensity than the client had expressed; one form of response to client sustain talk or discord

Apologizing

A way of responding to discord by taking partial responsibility

Assessment Feedback

Providing a client with personal feedback of findings from an evaluation, often in relation to normative ranges

Assessment Trap

The clinical error of beginning consultation with expert information- gathering at the cost of not listening to the client’s concerns

Autonomy Support

One of four aspects of acceptance as a component of MI spirit, by which the interviewer accepts and confirms the client’s irrevocable right to self-determination and choice

Blaming Trap

The clinical error of focusing on blame or fault-finding rather than change

Bouquet

A particular kind of summary that collects and emphasizes the client’s change talk

Brainstorming

Generating options without initially critiquing them

CATs

An acronym for three subtypes of client mobilizing change talk: Commitment, Activation, and Taking steps

Change Goal

A specific target for change in motivational interviewing; typically a particular behavior change, although it may also be a broader goal toward which there are multiple avenues of approach

Change Plan

A specific scheme to implement a change goal

Change Ruler

A rating scale, usually 0-10, used to assess a client’s motivation for a particular change

Change Talk

Any client speech that favors movement toward a particular change goal

Chat Trap

The clinical error of engaging in excessive small talk and informal chat that does not further the processes of engaging, focusing, evoking and planning

Client-centered Counseling

See person-centered counseling

Closed Question

A question that asks for yes/no, a short answer, or specific information

Coaching

The process of helping someone to acquire skill

Directing

Giving the client information or instructions

Guiding

A natural communication style for helping others find their way, combining some elements of both directing and following

Direction

The extent to which an interviewer maintains in-session momentum toward a change target.

Compassion

One of four central components of the underlying spirit of MI by which the interviewer acts benevolently to promote the client’s welfare, giving priority to the client’s needs

Complex reflection

An interviewer reflection that adds additional or different meaning beyond what the client has just said; a guess as to what the client may have meant

Confidence ruler

A scale (typically 0-10) on which clients are asked to rate their level of confidence in their ability to make a particular change

Confidence talk

Change talk that particularly bespeaks ability to change

Confront

An MI-inconsistent interviewer response such as warning, disagreeing or arguing

Continuing the Paragraph

A method of reflective listening in which the counselor offers what might be the next (as yet unspoken) sentence in the client’s paragraph

DARN

An acronym for four subtypes of client preparatory change talk: Desire, Ability, Reason, and Need.

Decisional Balance

A choice-focused technique that can be used when counseling with neutrality, devoting equal exploration to the pros and cons of change or of a specific plan

Depth of Reflection

The extent to which a reflection contains more than the literal content of what a person has already said

Desire

A form of client preparatory change talk that reflects a preference for change

Discord

Interpersonal behavior that reflects dissonance in the working relationship

Discrepancy

The distance between the status quo and one or more client change goals

Docere

To inform, in the sense of installing knowledge, wisdom, insight

Double-Sided Reflection

An interviewer reflection that includes both client sustain talk and change talk, usually with the conjunction “and”.

Ducere

To elicit or draw out

Elaboration

An interviewer response to client change talk, asking for additional detail, clarification, or example

Elicit-Provide-Elicit

An information exchange process that begins and ends with exploring the client’s own experience to frame whatever information is being provided to the client

Empathy

The extent to which an interviewer communicates accurate understanding of the client’s perspectives and experience

Emphasizing Personal Control

An interviewer statement directly expressing autonomy support, acknowledging the client’s ability for choice and self-determination

Engaging

The first of four fundamental processes in MI, the process of establishing a mutually trusting and respectful helping relationship to collaborate toward agreed-upon goals

Envisioning

Client speech that reflects the client imagining having made a change

Equipoise

The clinician’s decision to counsel with neutrality in a way that consciously avoids guiding a client toward one particular choice or change and instead explores the available options equally

Evocation

One of four central components of the underlying spirit of MI by which the interviewer elicits the client’s own perspectives and motivation

Evocative Questions

Strategic open questions the natural answer to which is change talk

Evoking

The third of four fundamental processes of MI, which involves eliciting the person’s own motivation for a particular change.

Expert Trap

The clinical error of assuming and communicating that the counselor has the best answers to the client’s problems

FRAMES

summarizing six components commonly found in effective brief interventions

Linking Summary

A special form of reflection that connects what the person has just said with something you remember from prior conversation

Values Sorting

A technique used by Milton Rokeach and others, in which a person gives priority rankings to various values

Q Sorting

A technique developed by William Stephenson, in which a person sorts cards describing attributes into piles ranging from “not like me” to “very much like me”

Motivational Interviewing

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

Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET)

A combination of motivational interviewing with assessment feedback