Motivational Interviewing in Healthcare
Core Elements of
Motivational Interviewing
Spirit
Skills
Process
Principles/Spirit
The "spirit" of motivational interviewing emphasizes the importance of collaboration, acceptance, evocation, and compassion.
Skills
The foundational skills are commonly known as OARS, which stands for open-ended questions, affirmation, reflections, and summaries. Open-ended questions help clients to explore their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Affirmation means you identify positive qualities and explicitly acknowledge them. Reflection requires active listening so you can provide a summary of the discussion and show someone that you followed what they said.
Process
The process consists of four main elements: engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning. Engaging means building an alliance with an individual. Focusing is where you work together to create an agenda. Evoking is the process of gently exploring an individuals thoughts and feelings and trying to bring out an individual's own argument for change. Planning for behavior change begins when an individual is willing and able to envision change.