How can MI team members effectively implement MI strategies?

1 Adopt the MI spirit

The MI spirit is the underlying attitude and mindset that guides the MI practice. It consists of four elements: partnership, acceptance, compassion, and evocation. Partnership means that you work with your client as an ally, not an expert or authority. Acceptance means that you respect your client's autonomy, strengths, perspectives, and goals. Compassion means that you care for your client's well-being and act in their best interest. Evocation means that you draw out your client's own motivation and resources, rather than imposing your own agenda or solutions. To adopt the MI spirit, you need to be genuine, empathic, curious, and supportive in your interactions with your client.

2 Follow the MI principles

The MI principles are the core strategies that help you apply the MI spirit in your practice. They are: express empathy, develop discrepancy, roll with resistance, and support self-efficacy. Express empathy means that you listen to your client's feelings, needs, and concerns, and reflect them back accurately and respectfully. Develop discrepancy means that you help your client recognize the gap between their current situation and their desired outcome, and elicit their reasons for change. Roll with resistance means that you avoid arguing or confronting your client, and instead use reflection, reframing, or open questions to explore their ambivalence or doubts. Support self-efficacy means that you affirm your client's abilities, confidence, and choices, and encourage them to take small steps toward change.

4 Practice and refine your MI skills

The MI skills are the tools that help you implement the MI principles and processes. They are: open questions, affirmations, reflections, and summaries (OARS). Open questions are those that invite your client to share more information or express their views, rather than those that can be answered with a yes or no. Affirmations are those that acknowledge your client's strengths, efforts, or achievements, rather than those that praise or flatter them. Reflections are those that restate or paraphrase your client's words or emotions, rather than those that interpret or judge them. Summaries are those that recap or highlight the main points or themes of your client's conversation, rather than those that add new information or opinions. To practice and refine your MI skills, you need to use them frequently, seek feedback, and review your performance.

6 Keep learning and growing

Implementing MI effectively is not a one-time event, but a continuous process. MI is a dynamic and evolving approach that requires ongoing learning and growing. To keep learning and growing, you need to be curious, humble, and flexible. You need to be curious about your client's experiences, perspectives, and needs, and how you can best serve them. You need to be humble about your own limitations, mistakes, and biases, and how you can overcome them. You need to be flexible about your own style, methods, and goals, and how you can adapt them to different situations and clients. To keep learning and growing, you need to read, watch, listen, and participate in various MI resources and opportunities.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?