Motivational Interviewing in Higher Education

The approach to motivational interviewing discussed in this book will be useful to student affairs professionals and academic advisors working in a variety of higher education positions. It begins in Chapter 1 by providing a description and a brief history of MI, noting some of its connections to counseling and social psychology. Chapter 2 explores in more detail the spirit of MI-the key relational components that the professional using MI is attuned to. This interpersonal attitude can be summarized within four key principles: partnership, acceptance, compassion, and evocation. Chapter 3 presents an overview of some contemporary models of academic advising and student affairs practice. Chapter 4 covers the basic MI skill set, which is referred to by the shorthand OARS. Chapter 5 discusses the four processes in MI conversations about change: engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning. Chapter 6 elaborates on the evoking stage and provide an expanded discussion concerning 'change talk' and 'sustain talk.' Change talk refers to student statements that express a desire, need, or readiness to change, while sustain talk refers to student statements that indicate maintenance of the status quo or a reluctance to change. In addition to providing more in-depth definitions of these concepts and examples of student statements, strategies are presented for increasing or evoking change talk and softening sustain talk. In Chapter 7, intermediate to advanced MI skills are addressed to prepare the highly motivated staff member for higher-level training that can be obtained through workshops, observation, and coaching. Chapter 8 puts everything together in two case examples. Chapter 9 provides some additional exercises that can be used to practice and develop MI basic and intermediate skills. Lastly, some brief concluding remarks are provided in Chapter 10.