Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a client-centred counselling approach for eliciting behavioural change in all aspects of life.  It can be usefully applied in helping clients/patients to be healthy, to stay safe and make a positive contribution and is an approach that is widely applicable from working with people who suffer from severe eating disorders, addictions/mental health issues to helping people in making a decision around stopping smoking. It also has a key role to play in Social Care, particularly Children’s Social Care, to enable social care staff to develop a range of skills and techniques for enabling, supporting and evidencing change in family work where safeguarding is an issue. This methodology has been embraced by a number of Children’s Care authorities in the UK through ‘Family Safeguarding Plus” (FSP).  More recently Motivational Interviewing is a key component of the Family Safeguarding Model pioneered by Hertfordshire County Council. Talking Life, through its Specialist Social Worker MI trainer has delivered substantial programmes of MI training throughout Children’s & Families Social Care and also Adults’ Social Care and we have delivered it in conjunction with Solution Focussed Interventions.

MI  provides a framework for learners within which they can assess where people are on the cycle of change and how they can help them to move through resistance and ambivalence to a stage where they can usefully set their own goals.