The OARS deep dive continues! This is the fourth and final in my OARS series as it relates to CHANGE TALK.
First, I talked about Open ended questions, then Affirmations. Then, I shared about Reflections, and finally today, SUMMARIES! Woohoo! (Am I the only one that gets this excited about the OARS of Motivational Interviewing?!)
Summaries are used to consolidate and guide conversation in Motivational Interviewing.
A couple of things we gotta remember- Motivational Interviewing is a guiding style of communication. So when we summarize, we pay particular attention to what we are summarizing.
Because what we pay attention to grows.
Clients tend to respond to what we reflect, and if we are reflecting everything a client says in a big ol’ summary, clients can feel overwhelmed and stuck.
And we aren’t in the business of helping clients stay stuck!
Our first task is to listen for Change Talk.
Then, we provide it back to clients like a bouquet of ‘change talk flowers’ we have picked up along the way.
People become more connected to that which they say, and THEN when they hear it reflected back to them- it’s like a double whammy of motivation!
Summaries are just awesome. And in this same selective way, summaries FOCUS the conversation. If clients talk about lots of different things, you can use summaries to help clients focus by reflecting the topic back to clients.
Motivational Interviewing Tip of the Week: Listen for that Change Talk! (Desire, Ability, Reasons & Need for change). Then, provide this back to them in frequent little and big summaries. Don’t be afraid to help clients remain focused and hear the change talk they provide!
