Effectively Promoting
Positive Student Behavior
Change
Motivational Interviewing
Presentation Goals:
• To give a flavor of Motivational
Interviewing.
• Inspire future exploration of this
approach.
www.motivationalinterview.org
Motivational Interviewing
 Developed
by William Miller, PhD and
Stephen Rollnick, PhD in 1983.
 Motivational Interviewing: Helping
People Change. Third Edition, 2013
 Began focused on addiction, shifted to
broad range of behavior change.
 Write
down one behavior you are
considering changing. Something
about yourself that you…
Want to change
Need to change
Should change
But
haven’t yet
Speaker: share only the sentence you wrote on
the behavior you are considering changing.
Counselor:




Explain why the speaker should make the change
Provide at least two benefits that would result from
the change
Tell the speaker how they could make the change
Emphasize the importance of this change
p.s. this is NOT motivational interviewing
“MI” defined
Motivational Interviewing is a
collaborative conversation to
strengthen a person’s own
motivation for and
commitment to change.
Miller and Rollnick
Purpose of Motivational Interviewing
The purpose of MI is to
evoke and strengthen
personal motivation for
change.
Miller and Rollnick, 2010
A way of being with people.
Not a technique.
CHANGE TALK!
What is Change Talk?
 Distinctive
to MI
 Any speech which favors movement in
the direction of change on a target
behavior
 Predictive of behavior change
Recognizing Change Talk
DARN (Preparatory)
 DESIRE to change (want, like, wish…)
 ABILITY to change (can, could…)
 REASONS to change (if … then)
 NEED to change (need, have to, got to...)
CAT (Mobilizing)
 COMMITMENT (intention, decision, promise)
 ACTIVATION (willing, ready, prepared)
 TAKING STEPS (“I moved my alarm clock
away from my bed.”)
A Taste of Motivational Interviewing
Speaker: State the same change you were considering.
Counselor: Listen carefully with the goal of
understanding the dilemma; give no advice.
 Ask these 3 questions:
Why would you want to make this change?
 How might you go about it in order to succeed?
 What are the two best reasons to do it?


Offer a short summary of the speaker’s motivations
for the change, then ask,

What do you think you’ll do? And just listen.
Resistance
Resistance

What is it signaling?

Highly responsive to
counselor style.

A fantastic in-session
signal to do something
differently.
MI Spirit
A way of being with people which is…
 Collaborative
 Evocative
 Accepting
 Compassionate
Evocative
Open questions
 Evocation
in Action
Accepting
Absolute
Worth
Affirmation
ACCEPTANCE
Accurate Empathy
Autonomy
Compassionate
Reflective Listening

Acceptance in
Action
Levels of Reflection
Simple reflection (What they SAY)
Repeat – same words; Rephrase – slight
change of words
Complex reflection (What they MEAN)
Paraphrase – major restatement which
infers meaning; Reflection of feeling;
Metaphor
Complex reflections
Forming
Reflections
Demonstration with your critique
Exercise 1: Thinking Reflectively
• One thing I like about myself is...
• Listener: “You mean that you…”
• Speaker: Yes or No responses
• Listener: Continue to make guesses
until understanding is reached.
Some sentence stems for reflections:
 It
sounds like you…
 You mean that…
 So you…
 You...
What I hear
you saying is
that you…
Reflections Exercise
•
•
•
•
Work in pairs on your assigned #
Develop a simple and complex refection
Choose the direction of your reflection
intentionally
Pay close attention to student change talk
Wrap-up
• “I learned or gained _________”
• “MI seems like it could be helpful
___________”
To Get Info on
Motivational Interviewing:
http://www.motivationalinterview.org/
skaye@madison.k12.wi.us
Or call Susan Kaye
(608)204-2470