Modeule 1Spirit of Motivational Interviewing.” -DYC 707A
Open Ended Questions
Compared to closed-questions, open-questions are designed to invite more elaboration (and to discourage one and two word answers).
Open-ended questions are a tool for interviewing and learning more from your client.
When should I use an open-ended question?
When you want to learn more
When you are tempted to give advice
Are there ever appropriate times for using closed-ended questions?
• While conducting an assessment (which is sometimes thought of as distinct from MI) • If the client is minimally verbal, exhibits poor cognition, or just seems unusually nervous
What is unique about open-ended questions in Motivational Interviewing?
It's true that many styles of counseling and support include open-ended questions, but MI practitioners aim to design questions in the spirit of evocation. That is, we aim to evoke change talk from the client using the open questions. Although there are an infinite number of ways to
achieve this, see the list below for four possible ways to design an open-ended question to
evoke change talk.
Examples of Evocative Questions Commonly Used in Motivational Interviewing
Ask for Change Talk
• What makes you WANT this change?
What REASONS do you have to make this change?
Looking Forward
• What would life be like 5 years from now if everything stayed exactly the same?
• What do you see for your life 10 years down the road? How would you like things to be?
Looking Back
What was life like before you had this problem?
What worked well for you in the past?
Query Extremes
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What are the best things you can imagine happening if you were to make this change?
What are the not-so-good things you can imagine happening if everything stays the same?
Practice Exercises: Read the client statements below. Decide if the statement appears to be
change talk or sustain talk, and then imagine a QUESTION that may have been asked by the
provider BEFORE the client spoke.
1. "I could start by setting up a schedule for when I'm going to exercise."
2.
O Change Talk?
O Sustain Talk?
Question that preceded the statement:
"I'm so sick of everybody telling me what to, so I stopped coming to my appointments.
I'm not putting up with this crap anymore. I want everyone to just leave me alone."
O Change Talk?
OSustain Talk?
Question that preceded the statement:
3. "I care about my health and I want to live a long time."
O Change Talk?
O Sustain Talk?
Question that preceded the statement:
4. "...Весause I know I will feel better if I just cut down on the drinking a little."
O Change Talk?
O Sustain Talk?
Question that preceded the statement:
5. "This is just too hard. Why bother?"
O Change Talk?
O Sustain Talk?
Question that preceded the statement:
Look back at your responses to the prompts above and reflect on the difference between the
questions that imagined. How is it that one question lead to a client saying "I'm so sick of
everybody telling me what to do..." and a different question led to "I care about my health..."?
What can you take away from this exercise?