​I recently attended a training where we talked a lot about micro-aggressions on college campuses (Dela Pena, Travers, Welch, 2017). It was during this training that I first learned of the term micro-affirmations. In the world of Motivational Interviewing (MI) we talk a lot about intentional affirmations as statements highlighting a person’s characteristics, values, and hard work. Unlike these “macro affirmations” offered in MI, micro affirmations are more nuanced and subtle and they aim to validate experiences of others within a power structure. Since attending this training and learning a bit more about micro affirmations and micro aggressions, I think that those of us practicing MI and other helping strategies would do well to consider using some of these ideas in our approaches. In this article I will discuss the idea of micro-aggressions. Then I will focus a bit on what micro-affirmations are and some ways to use them. Finally, I will discuss some ways that these ideas may be included in an MI training.

Cultural Humility and Motivational Interviewing
The concept of cultural humility refers to the practice of respecting folks from other backgrounds and identities on their own terms. A culturally humble approach seeks to understand others “in relation to aspects of cultural identity that are most important to the [person]” (Hook, 2013, p. 2). These most important aspects of one’s identity(ies) may not be obvious to others, thus the process of being culturally humble requires of the practitioner a non-judgmental curiosity, deep listening and self awareness among other qualities (Chavez, 2012; Tervalon & Murray-Garcia, 1998).