Coaching Practiced

22 Motivational Interviewing – a model for coaching psychology practice

Jonathan Passmore

Abstract

This is the first in a series of papers to look at Motivational Interviewing (MI) as an approach suitable for use with coaching clients. This paper presents a brief overview of MI for readers unfamiliar with MI and directs readers to other sources for a fuller account. The paper aims to set the scene from a practitioner perspective for subsequent papers in this section, rather than offer a detailed account of MI’s application in coaching. Each of these subsequent papers will present a short description of a technique suitable for working with a coachee’s ambivalence.

Keywords

coaching; motivational interviewing; coaching psychology; trans-theoretical model; behaviour change readiness for change

Original publication details: Palmer, S. (2009, December). Deserted island technique: Demonstrating the difference between musturbatory and preferential beliefs in cognitive behavioural and rational coaching. The Coaching Psychologist, 5(2), 127–129. Reproduced with permission of The British Psychological Society.

Coachee ambivalence to change can sometimes be an issue which coaches face in their work, in health as well as organisational coaching. Almost all of the coaching models, (for example GROW, Cognitive behavioural, solution focused) assume the client has mentally committed to make a change and that resistance is not a feature of the conversation. This is often the case, which ...