{"id":17758,"date":"2025-11-11T15:05:57","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T20:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/2016\/02\/core-interviewing-skills-in-mi\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T11:13:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:13:02","slug":"core-interviewing-skills-in-mi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/2025\/11\/core-interviewing-skills-in-mi\/","title":{"rendered":"Core Interviewing Skills in MI"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the next several months, we will \u201cgo back to the basics\u201d and explore the four core motivational interviewing skills:\u00a0O<\/strong>pen questions, A<\/strong>ffirmations, R<\/strong>eflective listening, and S<\/strong>ummaries (OARS)<\/i>. Again, we will collaborate with the client and utilize these foundational skills for mutual understanding.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

An open question<\/strong> is one that allows the client to express themselves and their experiences as fully as possible. This type of question offers an opportunity for the client to think before they respond and provides a great deal of latitude in terms of how it is answered. The question is often aimed at gathering information and understanding the client from their perspective, experience, and beliefs.<\/p>\n

The fun part about open questions is that you get to remain curious about how the client may respond, and from time to time, be surprised.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Examples of open starter questions are:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Tell me about\u2026.
\n\u2022 I am curious to hear more about\u2026.
\n\u2022 I\u2019m interested to learn more about\u2026<\/p>\n

Or more specifically:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Can you tell me more about your experiences with substances?
\n\u2022 How has using alcohol impacted your depression?
\n\u2022 I\u2019m interested to learn more about the support people you have in your life. Can you tell me about them?
\n\u2022 Based on our conversation, how do you want your life to be different?<\/p>\n

These questions can be used throughout the processes of MI. A general rule of thumb is to offer two reflections per open question<\/i>.<\/p>\n

We will continue to delve into these core MI skills over the next several months.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For more information about Motivational Interviewing resources, contact Eunice Akinyi Okumu, by phone (919) 843-2532, or by email, eunice_okumu@med.unc.edu<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the next several months, we will \u201cgo back to the basics\u201d and explore the four core motivational interviewing skills:\u00a0Open questions, Affirmations, Reflective listening, and Summaries (OARS). Again, we will collaborate with the client and utilize these foundational skills for mutual understanding. An open question is one that allows the client to express themselves and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103351,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[365,333,310],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-core-motivational-interviewing-skills","category-mi-core-skills","category-motivational-interviewing-blog","odd"],"acf":[],"featured_image":false,"featured_image_medium":false,"featured_image_medium_large":false,"featured_image_large":false,"featured_image_thumbnail":false,"featured_image_alt":false,"category_details":[{"name":"Core Motivational Interviewing Skills","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/category\/motivational-interviewing-blog\/mi-core-skills\/core-motivational-interviewing-skills\/"},{"name":"MI Core Skills","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/category\/motivational-interviewing-blog\/mi-core-skills\/"},{"name":"Motivational Interviewing Blog","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/category\/motivational-interviewing-blog\/"}],"tag_details":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103351"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17758"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19995,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17758\/revisions\/19995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}