Coaching practices for Motivational Interviewing

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Motivational Interviewing, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• They tell me what kind of parent or partner they want to be, and it’s miles from how they’re actually living
• Every time I lay out for someone all the reasons they should change, they just argue back for staying exactly as they are
• They say they want to change but they’re clearly half-in, half-out, and I can’t tell whether it’s that the change doesn’t matter enough to them or that they just don’t believe they could actually pull it off.
• I want to invite someone to try a new approach, and I sense it would land far better if they first connected it to how they already see themselves
• In these conversations I fire off question after question like an interrogation, and the other person closes up rather than opening

Practices that may help

1. Motivational Interviewing, Made Practical
   Motivational interviewing (MI) is a collaborative conversation style that strengthens a person’s own motivation for change by drawing out their reasons rather than supplying them. Meta-analyses find small-to-moderate effects across health behaviors — modest on average, but reliably better than confrontational or advice-giving styles, which can backfire.
2. Develop discrepancy between values and behavior
   Gently hold up the gap between what the person wants and what they’re doing.
   Motivational Interviewing, Made Practical
3. Evoke change talk instead of supplying it
   Ask questions that lead the person to voice their own reasons for changing.
   Motivational Interviewing, Made Practical
4. Scale importance and confidence with the readiness ruler
   Ask “On a 0–10 scale, how ready are you?” — then ask why not lower.
   Motivational Interviewing, Made Practical
5. Prime identity before the ask — "what kind of person are you?"
   Invite the person to describe who they are in terms that align with the behavior you’re requesting.
   Pre-Suasion, Made Practical
6. Use OARS to make the person feel understood
   Open questions, Affirmations, Reflections, Summaries — the four core micro-skills.
   Motivational Interviewing, Made Practical
7. Share advice with permission (ask–offer–ask)
   Ask what they know, offer information with consent, then ask what they make of it.
   Motivational Interviewing, Made Practical
8. Ask reflective questions instead of giving answers
   Questions that prompt self-examination invite the person in; directives keep them out.
   Psychological Reactance: Working With the Push-Back Reflex
9. Apply door-in-the-face for prosocial or charitable asks
   The technique was originally tested in a prosocial context and works especially well when both parties share values.
   The Door-in-the-Face Technique, Made Practical
10. Diagnose whether you are stuck on expectancy or value
    Before trying to motivate yourself, identify which of the two factors is actually low.
    Expectancy-Value Theory: Why You Try (or Don’t)

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