Motivational Interviewing: The Basics

Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight, give up smoking, or cut back on alcohol can confirm: change is difficult! This course explains the basics of William Miller and Stephen Rollnick’s motivational interviewing, an evidence-based approach to strengthening a person’s own motivation and commitment to a specific goal by eliciting and exploring their reasons for change in an atmosphere of acceptance and compassion. MI is known for its capacity to facilitate change. You learn about the importance of MI Spirit, comprising the four elements of partnership, acceptance, compassion, and empowerment. You see how its core skills, represented by the acronym OARS, apply counselling microskills in a nuanced way. You delve into the four processes of MI – engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning – to discover how they are utilised in a flexible, client-attuned way to help clients move toward changes they decide to make. And you deepen your understanding of how to work with the inevitable presence of ambivalence in a change effort, reinforcing change talk in clients and repairing the relational ruptures that occur when therapists get ahead of their clients. This course should be completed before attempting the companion courses: <strong><a href="/catalogue/courses/using-motivational-interviewing-to-treat-anxiety" target="_blank">Treating Anxiety with Motivational Interviewing</a></strong> and <strong><a href="/catalogue/courses/using-motivational-interviewing-to-treat-depression" target="_blank">Treating Depression with Motivational Interviewing</a></strong>.