OARS deep dive time! This is the third in my OARS series as it relates to CHANGE TALK.
First, I talked about Open ended questions, then Affirmations. Today, it’s all about REFLECTIONS that go somewhere!!
When you are learning MI, chances are, you are putting more intention into reflective listening than you ever have before.
Reflections are SO KEY to Motivational Interviewing. They help demonstrate empathy, support engagement, & help our clients feel like we are doing the best we can to GET them!
But if we aren’t careful, those amazing complex reflections we are providing can paddle us in circles.
(Get it, the OARS reference?! Paddle in circles?!)
It’s a complaint I often hear from new learners, “I’m doing all this reflecting and am really connecting with clients, but we aren’t getting anywhere!”
And that’s the goal, right? To GET somewhere!
Motivational Interviewing is designed to help someone resolve their ambivalence about something and move toward actual change. Instead of telling people what to do or persuading them to change, we use OARS to evoke their motivation for change.
So how do you use reflections to GET somewhere with clients?
Reflect Change Talk!
What’s Change Talk?
It’s the language clients provide about their motivation for change.
Their desire for change, need, reasons for change… their ability to change. And, the commitments, actions and steps they take toward change. That’s change talk.
So a client says, “I really want to exercise more, I know it would help me have more energy but I just have no time in my day, and when I do have time I don’t feel motivated. I just can’t figure out how to make it happen. Maybe it’s not that important right now.”
If you reflect, “It’s not your priority right now,” the client is likely to respond with more of that stuck language.
But if you reflect the Change Talk, “You are hitting some barriers, and recognize not only do you really want to exercise, you see how it will help you have more energy and feel better,” you are likely to get a response that continues the conversation in THAT direction. Toward change.
Motivational Interviewing Tip of the Week: The first task is to really LISTEN for Change Talk. What is the client saying that supports their “Why Change?” Why would they want or need to change? What could they do? If you reflect their Change Talk, you can guide conversation toward change. You may begin getting somewhere with those OARS!
