MI can’t be used in everyday life and conversations.

Wow this is a big statement, with a long answer.  Motivational Interviewing is an evidence-based practice that helps resolve ambivalence about a change.  When having a Motivational Interviewing based conversation, it’s a very intentional process and mindset. 

So, to answer this Fact vs. Myth it all comes down to, what does your everyday life look like?

• Are you navigating helping employees manage their time well?
• Are you helping a friend talk through whether they should change jobs or not?
• Are you having discussions with your partner about personal changes in your life?

All 3 of these examples, might be in your everyday life, and all these examples are about dealing with ambivalence.  Ambivalence is what is needed to have a Motivational Interviewing based conversation.  When you spot ambivalence, you can turn on your “MI brain” to help the person navigate and explore their options and moving forward in a productive way.

However, there might be times in your everyday life where you don’t spot ambivalence, but you do spot one of these things in your conversations.

• Resistance
• Defensiveness
• Blaming

When you learn Motivational Interviewing, you learn micro skills. (See blog: Learning Motivational Interviewing), although those micro skills alone don’t mean you’re doing Motivational Interviewing, it does help you navigate some tough conversations.

Take the examples from above, there might not be any ambivalence to any of these challenges, but you can pull out some of the skills you’ve learned in Motivational Interviewing to navigate the conversation.  Whether you start to use strategic reflective statements, support someone’s autonomy and activation or roll with resistance, these are very useable skills in your day-to-day life.

Motivational Interviewing and the micro skills within the skillset, can come in very handy in your day-to-day life. So overall we say this is a MYTH. But what do you think? Comment below and share your thoughts!

If you haven’t taken one of our classes, we highly suggest it!

Want more?

Check out our Podcast: How can Motivational Interviewing change the world?

Check out our Podcast: What is Motivational Interviewing?

Check out our Podcast: When can you use Motivational Interviewing?