{"id":17772,"date":"2025-11-11T15:06:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T20:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/2015\/03\/the-art-of-engaging\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T13:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T18:15:19","slug":"the-art-of-engaging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/2025\/11\/the-art-of-engaging\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Engaging"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-104 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1380\/2025\/09\/tumblr_inline_nopp0bc6sr1t6dtej_540.jpg\" alt=\"tumblr_inline_nopp0bc6sr1t6dtej_540\" width=\"440\" height=\"263\" \/><\/p>\n<p>People often ask if there is a typical rhythm or flow to a Motivational Interviewing session\u2026and the answer, of course, is yes and no. Yes, there is a \u201cmethod\u201d to MI explained through 4 processes (Engaging, Focusing, Evoking, and Planning) which are often sequential. And no, because even though these processes can often be sequential, they are also recursive. Imagining these 4 processes as stair steps, each process can build on the next or the client and clinician may dance together up and down the staircase continually returning to prior steps as needed.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the next 4 months, we will discuss each of the 4 processes of MI. This month, we are going to focus on the first process, <strong>Engaging. <\/strong>As you can imagine, this process attempts to establish a therapeutic relationship by building rapport and trust. Ways to accomplish this include: asking permission, asking open ended questions, acknowledging that change is difficult, being comfortable with silence, allowing the client to talk more than the clinician, using reflective listening, and affirming client\u2019s choice to be in the session.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1380\/2025\/09\/tumblr_inline_nopoyu5E5I1t6dtej_540.jpg\" width=\"361\" height=\"361\" \/><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i>For more information about Motivational Interviewing resources, contact Eunice Akinyi Okumu, by phone (919) 843-2632, or by email,<a href=\"mailto:eunice_okumu@med.unc.edu\"> eunice_okumu@med.unc.edu<\/a>\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<div class=\"wrap row\">\n<div class=\"content container\">\n<div class=\"row \">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People often ask if there is a typical rhythm or flow to a Motivational Interviewing session\u2026and the answer, of course, is yes and no. Yes, there is a \u201cmethod\u201d to MI explained through 4 processes (Engaging, Focusing, Evoking, and Planning) which are often sequential. And no, because even though these processes can often be sequential, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/2025\/11\/the-art-of-engaging\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about The Art of Engaging\">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":[335,327,310],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-of-engaging","category-mi-process-engaging","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":"Art of Engaging","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/category\/motivational-interviewing-blog\/mi-process-engaging\/art-of-engaging\/"},{"name":"MI Process: Engaging","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/category\/motivational-interviewing-blog\/mi-process-engaging\/"},{"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\/17772","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=17772"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20093,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17772\/revisions\/20093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}