Assignment 1: the spirit of motivational interviewing

There is an old adage that “practice makes perfect,” which is particularly relevant to learning a new set of skills like those associated with motivational interviewing. Over the next several weeks, the Assignments are designed to give you opportunities to practice specific motivational interviewing skills that are introduced in the Discussions.

In this week’s Discussion, you practiced applying the spirit of motivational interviewing to a service user in the case study to which you were assigned. As you may remember, the spirit of motivational interviewing is a heart-set and mindset that encompasses four elements that are crucial for building a relationship with a service user: partnership, acceptance, compassion, and evocation (Miller & Rollnick, 2013). In this Assignment, you will review a series of practitioner statements to determine whether the statements reflect the spirit of motivational interviewing.

Reference:
Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2013). Motivational interviewing: Helping people change (3rd ed.). The Guilford Press.

To Prepare

• Review the Learning Resources on the spirit of motivational interviewing.
• Review the document entitled, “Rating Samples for MI Spirit.” Consider whether each of the exchanges is consistent with the spirit of motivational interviewing. Why, or why not?

Submit a 2- to 3-page paper that addresses the following:

• Explain whether each exchange in the “Rating Samples for MI Spirit” document is consistent with the spirit of motivational interviewing. Why, or why not? Be specific.
• In instances where you do not believe that the exchange is consistent with the spirit of motivational interviewing, explain how the practitioner could have responded to be consistent with the spirit of motivational interviewing. Again, be specific.