I guess if you wanted the wind or the current to blow you in whatever direction nature intended!
Why am I talking about boating and Motivational Interviewing?
In Motivational Interviewing, OARS skills are used to guide conversation. We are metaphorically ‘rowing’ toward change with our OARS!
In the next few weeks, I’m going to do a deeper dive into each of the OARS skills. This week, I’m writing about Open-ended questions. Next week, Affirmations. Then, Reflections, and finally, Summaries! So here we go!
Open-ended Questions elicit more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or one word response. Open-ended questions start with sentence stems like “Tell me more about…” “What thoughts do you have about…” “Why might this change be important…”
Closed Question: Are you going nuts during COVID? (Um…YES!)
Open Question: Tell me about how you are surviving during COVID? (Well… that’s a longer story).
Closed Question: Who are you voting for in the upcoming presidential election?
Open Question: Tell me about what you value most in a presidential candidate? (VOTE FOLKS!)
Open Ended Questions relay our curiosity and desire to learn more about the client from the client. They help us to evoke Change Talk and guide the conversation to help the client move toward resolution of ambivalence!
Motivational Interviewing Tip of the Week: Challenge yourself! When you are listening to a podcast or news, is the interviewer using mostly Open or Close-ended questions? Play around with rewording closed questions to open them up. Let me know how it goes!
