Motivational Interviewing Learning Dashboard

Resources to support conversations in the spirit of MI: partnership, acceptance, compassion and empowerment.

Dashboard

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Engage

Connect with the person.

Go to Engage resources →
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Focus

Explore options together and find a focus.

Go to Focus resources →
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Evoke

Listen for reasons, strengths and values.

Go to Evoke resources →
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Plan

Make a plan together to support successful change.

Go to Plan resources →
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Learning tools

Practical tools to reflect on and strengthen your MI practice.

Go to learning tools →
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More resources

Further reading, networks and podcasts to deepen your MI learning.

Go to more resources →

Engage

💬 Engage

Connect with the person.

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The Spirit of Motivational Interviewing

The spirit of MI is a way of being. In MI, we work together in the peron’s interest, express empathy, honour autonomy, acknowledge strengths, and elicit the person’s own motivation. The focus is on partnership, acceptance, compassion and empowerment. .
PDF Open Spirit PDF →
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Microskills for Motivational Interviewing

The skills used in motivational interviewing will likely be familiar to you. In motivational interviewing, the direction of the conversation is important to keep in mind, and always, the spirit of MI is key to the conversation.
PDF Open Microskills PDF →
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Resistance to Change

Conversations about change are challenging, and sometimes it feels like you are working very hard to help a person, and it seems like the person is resisting change. MI offers ways of responding to sustain talk and to discord.
PDF Open Resistance PDF →
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Asking Open Questions

Open questions are a foundation skill in person-centred care, because they enable the person to tell you what they know, feel, understand, value and prioritise
PDF Open Open Questions PDF →

Focus

☑️ Focus

Explore options together and find a focus.

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Agenda Mapping

People are complex and there's rarely just one thing they have been thinking about changing. There can sometimes be so many potential target behaviours that it can feel overwhelming. It can be helpful to find a focus for a helping conversation.
PDF Open Agenda Mapping PDF →
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Asking Evocative Open Questions

Helpers sometimes fear open questions, because they think that people will talk endlessly, or about things that are not relevant. Evocative open questions are those that draw out a person’s priorities and preferences about changing behaviour. “Open questions are questions that cannot be readily answered with a 'yes', 'no' or a single word.”
PDF Open Evocative Questions PDF →
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Importance and Confidence

When you think about it, change conversations are usually about things that people identify as important to change, but also feel will be difficult to change. If we can assist people to draw on their resources and abilities to increase their confidence, we can be helpful in supporting them to make a change.
PDF Open Importance & Confidence PDF →
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Offering Information & Advice

In motivational interviewing, and in many other person-centred approaches to advice giving, an Ask-Offer-Ask approach is used to work with what the person thinks, feels, or knows. This can also be helpful in finding a focus. “How do I give advice in a way that is consistent with motivational interviewing?”
PDF Open Information & Advice PDF →

Evoke

💡 Evoke

Listen for reasons, strengths and values.

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Tuning into Change Talk

By encouraging people to talk about what they want to change, feel is possible, within their ability and important to them; we can encourage behaviour change. Motivational interviewing focuses on the language of change.
PDF Open Tuning into Change Talk PDF →
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Asking Evocative Open Questions

Open questions are questions which ask about people what they want, need, can do, feel is important, or what they are willing to do; in short, evocative open questions ask people for change talk. “What…? How…? Tell me about…?”
PDF Open Evocative Questions PDF →
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Importance and Confidence

Using scaling questions, we can assist people to articulate their reasons for making changes, and why it is important, as well as promote their confidence to make changes. These questions help to develop discrepancy between maintaining the status quo, and making changes. They help to draw on the person’s values, and to identify what they need to make changes. “If you were at a 4 for confidence, why not a 2? What would move it to a 6?”
PDF Open Importance & Confidence PDF →

Plan

📋 Plan

Make a plan together to support successful change.

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Offering Information & Advice

At the planning stage, you may have some great ideas that can be helpful for a person, but first…

ASK

Ask people about their ideas, what they know, understand, or think.

Seek permission

OFFER

Information and a range of options, where possible Clarification of any misinformation Reinforcement of the person’s understanding or knowledge

ASK

Ask people what they think and feel about the information discussed, and/or what they might do “We tell people what to do in order to help them… but how often does this lead to lasting change?”
PDF Open Information & Advice PDF →
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Making a Plan for Change

Planning for successful change is about getting specific and setting goals that are attainable and relevant. While it can seem that setting a goal is the endpoint, we also know that many people set goals and then don’t make changes. The spirit and skills of motivational interviewing can also help to make the behaviour change successful after a plan has been made. It’s easy to get ahead of a person’s readiness. At any time in planning, you may need to review your engagement, alter the focus, or spend time eliciting more of the person’s perspective or ideas.
PDF Open Making a Plan PDF →

Learning tools

🔨 Learning tools

Tools to reflect on your MI practice and track your learning over time.

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Am I Doing MI?

This handout, from Miller & Rollnick’s 2013 text, provides some thought-provoking questions for you to consider as you listen to your recordings. It can also be used as a reminder of the spirit of MI. “Here are some questions to ask yourself, reflecting on your inner experience as well as your conversational style.”
PDF Open Am I Doing MI? PDF →
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MI Pocket Guide

A snapshot of MI skills that can be used as a refresher, or a lanyard card to check in with from time to time in your work.
PDF Open MI Pocket Guide PDF →
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Self-Assessment of MI Skills

This self-assessment guide describes the MI skills to look out for, how to spot them, and also provides guidance about what to work toward as you develop your competency in using MI.
PDF Open Self-Assessment PDF →

More resources

📖 More resources

Key texts, networks and podcasts to deepen and sustain your MI practice.

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Motivational Interviewing Textbook

Core text by Miller & Rollnick, providing the theoretical and practical foundation for MI. “Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change.”
Book See local library or bookseller
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Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT)

An international organisation of MI trainers supporting high-quality MI practice and training.
Website Search “MINT Motivational Interviewing”
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Talking to Change Podcast

Conversations about MI in practice, with interviews and case examples.
Podcast Available on major podcast platforms