Motivational Interviewing Quotes

“People are the undisputed experts on themselves. No one has been with them longer, or knows them better than they do themselves. In MI, the helper is a companion who typically does less than half of the talking.”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing personal opinion. —PROVERBS 18:2”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“MI is done “for” and “with” a person. It is an active collaboration between experts. People are the undisputed experts on themselves. No one has been with them longer, or knows them better than they do themselves.”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“to sense the client’s inner world of private personal meanings as if it were your own, but without ever losing the ‘as if’ quality”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“Helpers want to help, to set things right, to get people on the road to health and wellness. Seeing people head down a wrong path stimulates a natural desire to get out in front of them and say, “Stop! Go back! Don’t you see? There is a better way over there!,” and it is done with the best of intentions, with one’s heart in the right place. We call this the “righting reflex”—the desire to fix what seems wrong with people and to set them promptly on a better course, relying in particular on directing. What could possibly be wrong with that?”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“Henri Nouwen (2005) observed that “anyone who willingly enters into the pain of a stranger is truly a remarkable person,” and we agree”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“If you treat an individual as he is, he will stay as he is, but if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be. —JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“A common motivation is the compassionate desire to foster well-being and happiness, alleviate or prevent suffering, and facilitate positive change. There is the joy, indeed the privilege, of being witness to growth and change, knowing that you have made a difference. These motivations are often what attract and retain people as counselors, educators, clergy, coaches, and health care professionals along with many other kinds of helpers who accompany people on life’s journey.”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change and Grow

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness, concerning all acts of initiative and creation. There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision. —JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“People are more likely to be persuaded by what they hear themselves say.”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“El acercamiento es un principio; mantenerse unidos, un progreso; trabajar juntos, el verdadero éxito. HENRY FORD”
― William R. Miller, La entrevista motivacional: Ayudar a las personas a cambiar

“It takes two to speak truth—One to speak, and another to hear. —HENRY DAVID THOREAU”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“I’m so miserable without you, it’s almost like you’re here.”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“It is also possible within sequential coding to measure the extent to which clinicians recognize and respond appropriately to change talk by enumerating clinician behaviors that immediately follow occurrences of client change talk (OARS; see Chapter 14).”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“Complex reflections typically add substantial meaning or emphasis to what the client has said. These reflections serve the purpose of conveying a deeper or more complex picture of what the client has said. Sometimes the clinician may choose to emphasize a particular part of what the client has said to make a point or take the conversation in a different direction. Clinicians may add subtle or very obvious content to the client’s words, or they may combine statements from the client to form complex”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“This review also pointed to six common components of effective brief treatment (cf. Miller & Sanchez, 1994), summarized by the acronym FRAMES: Feedback of personal status relative to norms Responsibility for personal change Advice to change Menu of options from which to choose in pursuing change Empathic counselor style Support for self-efficacy What began as an interest in motivation for treatment had broadened now to focusing on motivation for change.”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“The first of four basic processes in MI is to engage the client in a collaborative working relationship.”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“Why is the person coming to see you now? What does he or she want? Ask and listen. 2. What is your sense of how important the client’s goal(s) may be? 3. Be welcoming. Offer a cup of coffee. Look for what you can genuinely appreciate and comment positively about, even something simple, and for other ways to help the client feel welcome. 4. How does the person think you might be able to help? Provide the client with some sense of what to expect. 5. Offer hope. Explain what you do and how it may help. Present a positive and honest picture of changes that others have made and of the efficacy of the services you can offer.”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“developing compassion: There is a developmental process for cultivating compassion for others. . . . The first step is knowledge. . . . Then you need to constantly reflect and internalize this knowledge . . . to the point where it will become a conviction. It becomes integrated into your state of mind. . . . Then you get to a point where it becomes spontaneous. (The Dalai Lama & Ekman, 2008, pp.”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“these four person-centered conditions convey what we mean by “acceptance.” One honors each person’s absolute worth and potential as a human being, recognizes and supports the person’s irrevocable autonomy to choose his or her own way, seeks through accurate empathy to understand the other’s perspective, and affirms the person’s strengths and efforts.”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“client openness versus defensiveness, change talk versus sustain talk, is very much a product of the therapeutic relationship. “Resistance” and motivation occur in an interpersonal context.”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“Ambivalence is simultaneously wanting and not wanting something, or wanting both of two incompatible things. It has been human nature since the dawn of time.”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change

“Motivational interviewing is a collaborative conversation style for strengthening a person’s own motivation and commitment to change.”
― William R. Miller, Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change