Unlocking Motivation Makes Life-long Change Possible

Helping participants unlock their motivation is key to making life-long changes. This month, we sat down with Savanna Depew, the Assistant Manager of CWEE’s Integrated Services team, to chat about one of the most important pieces of our work with participants: Motivational Interviewing.??

In her role, Savanna supports CWEE’s Program Advisors and participants in a variety of ways. She connects Program Advisors to case manager resources, provides ongoing training and helps them discover their own motivation– driven approach to coaching. She also regularly connects with participants, leading orientation sessions, communicating what to expect from CWEE’s program, and providing one-on-one coaching. ? ?

At CWEE, Motivational Interviewing (MI) guides our programming, from our curriculum and classroom discussions, to individual coaching sessions between participants and their Program Advisors. This behavioral change technique was developed in the 1980s by psychologists, William Miller and Stephen Rollnick, and has become the primary lens through which we approach our work alongside participants.??

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Let’s learn a little more about the work from Savanna:??

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What is the main goal of Motivational Interviewing and how does CWEE practice it with our participants??

The goal of MI is to draw out a participant’s need for change and to strengthen their desire for change. Participants often come to CWEE with an idea that something in their life is hindering their success. By using techniques such as open-ended questions and reflective listening, participants work together with their Program Advisor to understand what changes they want to make, and why those changes are important to them.??

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Can you share an example of a question you might ask or a tool you might use while practicing MI??

Reflection is a key tool that we use when practicing MI. Through our relationship-focused work, our participants share a lot with us. Reflection goes a step beyond listening and assumes meaning or importance that can help participants understand their motivation. For example, imagine a participant shares that they have applied for several jobs but not heard back from any of them. A Program Advisor might respond by saying “That sounds like a frustrating experience and that something isn’t working with your job search”. By reflecting back to a participant what they shared, a Program Advisor can point out what the participant has already expressed: a change needs to be made. From there, we can discuss what and how the change is made and begin to develop a plan. If someone doesn’t see that a change needs to be made, convincing them takes a lot of effort and is often ineffective. By reflecting back what a participant has said, it helps to illuminate that the problem has already been identified by the participant, even if they haven’t quite realized it yet.?

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CWEE is a trauma-informed organization – can you talk a little bit about how MI is trauma-informed??

As a trauma-informed organization, we hold the principles that everyone has a story, and that healing is possible for everyone through relationship and intentionality. MI holds those same principles by honoring the autonomy of our participants. Each person comes to CWEE with their own skills, stories, and motivations. Our approach is meant to uncover those. We seek to understand each participant individually and recognize that each participant will have a different path to success. Many of our participants have interacted with other workforce development programs that focus heavily on program requirements without taking time to hear what the participant envisions for their career and family. We see this work as a partnership with participants, and MI helps us to connect on a meaningful and individualized level.?

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One of the most important elements of Motivational Interviewing is what’s called the “MI Spirit” – can you tell us a little bit about that??

The “MI Spirit” is the mindset that people use when starting to practice MI. You can think about it as setting the table for the conversation that will take place. The MI Spirit focuses on several dynamics, highlighting genuineness, collaboration, autonomy and unconditional positive regard. When engaging in motivational interviewing, you respect that a person has the choice to make decisions about their life and that they are doing the best they can. With those in mind, you enter the relationship on even ground and with respect for the participant to determine their own path. Before coming to CWEE, our participants were not waiting in a dark room waiting for our staff to start their lives. They have been surviving, making goals and solving problems before they met us. The relationship we create and plans we make together build on those skills to move people further along in their lives and careers.?

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Can you describe the collaborative goal setting process we use at CWEE and how MI fits into that??

MI allows participants to articulate what they would like to change in their lives and why they want to change. Once that is clear to them, then we get to move into the “how”, or the planning process. This is where the rubber meets the road. We discuss what their timeline is, what resources they might need to achieve their goal, and what accomplishing their goal will mean for them and their family. During the process, we might discover other goals or motivations that feel important. The entire process is one of learning and collaboration.??

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What has it been like to put Motivational Interviewing into practice while working with participants??

Practicing MI with participants has been deeply impactful to how I approach my work. When I first started coaching, I felt like I had to come up with all the answers and solutions. It was a lot of pressure! Now, I can approach each conversation not as a lesson to teach to a participant, but a step in mutual learning. Practicing MI with participants allows me to help them build skills and achieve goals that they want to work on! Each step and conversation build into bigger success and achievement.??

An unexpected lesson I’ve learned with MI is how important listening is! Our participants are often facing barriers or challenges that are difficult to solve in one conversation; providing a listening ear and reflecting their own passion and goals back to them provides the support that they need to make progress. Even when an issue is not immediately solved or the goal is longer term, after speaking with a Program Advisor and engaging in MI, participants I have worked with feel clarity around their next steps and support along their path.?