A Little Bit of the Soul (the movie) of Motivational Interviewing

I recently rewatched the Disney movie Soul, the story of a middle school band teacher about to make his big music break when he falls into a hole and dies. (Don’t worry, I didn’t spoil anything there, it happens at the beginning).

In the afterworld, he escapes the escalator to the white light, and comes back to earth desperately trying to re-enter his life so he can play with the famous band. And before the big show, when he’s at his apartment getting ready, a student shows up for her trombone lesson.

But first, a quick pause on the story to explain what psychological reactance is, as it relates to this moment in Soul and Motivational Interviewing.

Psychological what?!

Psychological reactance is the normal human reaction to oppose being told what to do.

It kicks in for us when we feel ambivalent about something, we aren’t yet ready to change, someone tells us to change…so we automatically oppose them. 

We can see evidence of this everywhere in our work as helping professionals, and quite honestly, in our personal lives.

One of our tasks in Motivational Interviewing is to sidestep psychological reactance by evoking motivation rather than trying to impart it. 

Now, back to Soul and Motivational Interviewing!

So one of his students shows up for her trombone lesson, and announces herself by saying, “I came to tell you that I quit! Band is a stupid waste of time! I think jazz is pointless.”

But, because of his death experience, (and some soul confusion with a cat…just watch it if you haven’t yet), he responds differently.

“Yeah, jazz is pointless,” he agrees. 

Which surprises her.

He continues, “In fact, all of school is pointless.”

She is again surprised by his response, clearly expecting him to argue her out of quitting.

He continues, “You’re right to quit. I learned about quitting just…”

But the young student interrupts him, “You know what Mr. G, I was working on this note yesterday, and maybe you can listen to it and tell me to quit after [I play for you], okay?”

Then she proceeds to play and gets into this beautiful flow of music.

You can see she loses time. The notes she plays transport them both. It’s beautiful. 

He looks up at her and reflects, “You really love this.”

“Yeah,” the girl admits, “So, maybe I’d better stick with it?”

“Yeah,” the teacher agreed. 

When she didn’t encounter what she expected- another person telling her what to do- she found her own motivation to do it. This is Motivational Interviewing in action.  

 

Motivational Interviewing Tip of the Week: Be watchful for where psychological reactance shows up as you strive to help people change. If you find yourself arguing for change, your client (or family members!) are likely to argue against it. What happens if you shift your response, and instead reflect? Come alongside? In Motivational Interviewing, we are most interested in the clients’ motivation for change. We stay out of arguing for change, and instead use the OARS skills to evoke their motivation. We sidestep psychological reactance, and instead, learn to draw forth the motivation within our clients.

 

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