​As practitioners of Motivational Interviewing (MI), we aim to help others through compassion. Whether we are trainers, case workers, supervisors, physical therapists or play other roles, we practice MI as a skillful way to express our desire to be of benefit to others. We are united by our aim to reduce suffering and increase happiness in those we serve. But do we extend this same compassionate intention to ourselves?

I have not written a blog article in nearly 3 years, interestingly enough this length of time is close to the age of my daughter! I have also changed jobs, recovered from COVID, and moved to a new city. As I begin to gain my stability as a new father in a new city, I hope to start to write with more frequency. The article below is my first writing since my 3 year “sab-dad-ical.” It was very fulfilling to put some of these ideas on paper, and I hope that others will benefit from some of these ideas as well.  

​Motivational Interviewing is how I was first introduced in a deep and meaningful way to the concept of compassion. The helping approach outlined by Miller and Rollnick’s writing on MI seemed like a compassion “how to” manual of sorts. Not only did MI emphasize the importance of a compassionate spirit (what Dr. Miller has often referred to as the “way of being with another”), the practice of MI offered tangible practices that can be ways of “doing compassion.” These practices include using reflections, open ended questions, affirmations, and summaries (OARS), avoiding traps to engagement, seeking consent before giving information and others. MI also pointed me towards a path to follow when practicing compassion with others – Engage, Focus, Evoke, and Plan (the MI processes). Having the MI presence, practices, and path helped me to become more effective and intentional with how I helped others. It seemed to me at this time that compassion was seeking to deeply understand someone without judgment and taking steps towards helping that person (Miller & Rollnick, 2013). MI has a very practical and other-oriented definition of compassion: 

As someone who thinks a lot about using intentional communication to help others, I have often thought about the idea of feedback. When I served as a supervisor, I thought long and hard about how to talk with team members about their performance in a way that was helpful. As a Motivational Interviewing (MI) trainer, I have tried many ways of communicating to training participants about their use of MI skills. As an instructor/advisor of graduate students, I frequently experiment with different strategies when helping students identify areas of growth and strengths in their professional development. I have thought a lot about giving feedback, but it was not until recently that I had thought about how I receive feedback. After reading Thanks For the Feedback, I am convinced that intentionally receiving feedback is an important and often overlooked aspect in the feedback process. I think that in regards to the practice of cultural humility, the skill of receiving feedback is even more important than the skill of giving feedback.

​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.

​Communicating with someone with a different viewpoint can be challenging, and most of us can understand this from experience. Maybe you dabbled in politics at the thanksgiving table with family members who have drastically different perspectives on the role of government than your own. Perhaps you have experience sharing some religious differences with someone who was equally convicted of their faith (or lack thereof). Heck, for some people bringing up the success of a rival sports team can set the tone for an angry exchange of words. 

​Recently I started a new position at a local university as an Applied Learning Facilitator in the Office of Field Education for graduate level social work students. Naturally as a Motivational Interviewing (MI) enthusiast, I immediately looked for ways to incorporate my MI passion into my new job. One of my primary roles in this position is to act as a field advisor to practicum students, and I believe that MI could fit quite naturally in the 30 minute advising appointments that I have with students. I believe that by utilizing some MI skills and the MI spirit, an advisor such as myself can be more student-centered and more effective in helping students in their professional growth and development. What follows is a review of some literature written on using MI in advising-type roles, and toward the end of this article I have included some of my thoughts on how I and other advisors might use MI in the advising appointment.

​Venting. We all do it from time to time. Is it helpful? In this article I explore the idea of venting. I strongly believe that venting “negative” emotions such as anger, hatred, resentment or jealousy can be harmful, and that venting has little to no helpful purpose in these cases. I argue that venting negative emotions can cause harm to ourselves, our friends and family, and our communities. 

​Mindfulness has been trending in popular western culture recently. It is promoted as almost a panacea; mindfulness is said to help with everything from pain management to burnout prevention to psychotherapy and self-help. Indeed, the latest research indicates that mindfulness can play a part in helping folks with a variety of conditions such as obesity, anxiety, and even preschool learning outcomes – so clearly this mindfulness trend is not only hype (for more information on latest research see American Mindfulness Research Association). This article will first explore  manifestations of mindfulness in some of the "third wave" therapeutic approaches, and will conclude with a description of some ways that mindfulness is an important (yet not explicit) part of good Motivational Interviewing (MI) practice.

Acceptance 
The term acceptance is common across many therapeutic modalities. Acceptance is one of the 4 processes of the spirit of Motivational Interviewing (MI), it is one of the 6 core therapeutic processes of Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT), and radical acceptance is a key component of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT).

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).