Webinar: Motivational Interviewing: Application of Skill
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative style of communication that seeks to help people make changes to improve their lives. Those involved in outreach and recruitment can benefit from using MI techniques to engage hesitant clients in a way that respects their autonomy, addresses their concerns, and builds motivation for enrollment.
On March 5, 2025, LA Best Babies Network (LABBN) hosted a webinar on Motivational Interviewing for Welcome Baby Outreach Specialists and others in our network of home visiting organizations and Welcome Baby hospitals. LABBN’s Senior Training Coordinator Patrick Flippin-Weston led the presentation. He gave an overview of MI, along with guidance on how and when to employ it. (See the recording and his presentation slides and related resources below.)
There are four active components of Motivational Interviewing:
- Partnership: active collaboration
- Acceptance: actively accepting what someone brings to the conversation
- Compassion: promoting other’s welfare and needs
- Evocation: drawing out what’s inside of the person
In Motivational Interviewing, the goal is to encourage “change talk” and avoid reinforcing “sustain talk,” which favors the status quo rather than movement toward change.
The basic engaging skills in Motivational Interviewing are represented by the the acronym “O.A.R.S.”:
- Open-ended questions
- Affirmations
- Reflections
- Summary
Watch the webinar recording here, and don’t miss the links to related resources below:
Related Resources:
- Presentation slides for this webinar
- Motivational Interviewing reminders sheet
- Motivational Interviewing practice sheet
- Understanding Motivational Interviewing (Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers)
- 10 Reasons why Employees resist changes at Work (Daniel Bossard, BA, LinkedIn)
- What Does the Acronym OARS Mean in Motivational Interviewing?
