{"id":17785,"date":"2025-11-11T18:00:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T23:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/2017\/07\/mi-questions-evoking-change-talk\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T16:24:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T21:24:03","slug":"evoking-change-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/2025\/11\/evoking-change-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Evoking Change Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When a practitioner works with a client, the practitioner can significantly influence how much <strong>change talk<\/strong> (movement towards changing behavior) and <strong>sustain talk<\/strong> (movement towards maintaining current behavior) they will hear. And the difference is not when the practitioner is just being nice to the client, but rather, from strategic approaches that actually evoke change talk.<\/p>\n<p>There are many ways to evoke change talk, and our clients will let us know if we are doing it right. How? If we, as practitioners, are hearing change talk from the client, we are doing it right and should continue doing more. And if we are hearing sustain talk, we should try another strategy since we are not moving in the direction of change.<\/p>\n<p>One of the easiest and most straightforward ways to evoke change talk is to simply ask for what you want to hear. For example, asking open ended questions where the response is related to change talk. To get this process started, the <strong>DARN <\/strong>acronym (of <strong>DARN C<\/strong>) can be helpful. You may be familiar with these questions and it is best to start with exploring the possibility of change versus talking about making a plan for change too early. I have found it helpful to take my time with a client and allow the client to guide me as to the pace of moving into action steps.<\/p>\n<p>Some thoughts about evocative questions and examples from Miller and Rollnick are below:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><strong>D<\/strong>esire: Questions usually include words such as <strong><em>want, wish,<\/em><\/strong> and <strong><em>like.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><strong>Example questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n<ul>\n<li>How would you <strong><em>like<\/em><\/strong> for things to change?<\/li>\n<li>How do you <strong><em>want<\/em><\/strong> your life to be different a year from now?<\/li>\n<li>What do you <strong><em>wish<\/em><\/strong> for in your relationship?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><strong>A<\/strong>bility<strong>:\u00a0<\/strong>Questions usually include what a client <strong><em>can<\/em><\/strong> do, is <strong><em>able<\/em> <\/strong>to do, or <strong><em>could<\/em><\/strong> do.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><strong>Example questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n<ul>\n<li>If you did really decide you want to lose weight, how <strong><em>could<\/em><\/strong> you do it?<\/li>\n<li>What do you think you might be <strong>able<\/strong> to change?<\/li>\n<li>Of the various options you\u2019ve considered, what seems most <strong><em>possible<\/em><\/strong>?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><strong>R<\/strong>easons<strong>:\u00a0<\/strong>Questions usually ask about <strong><em>specific reasons<\/em><\/strong> why a client may consider making a change.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><strong>Example questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Why<\/em><\/strong> would you want to get more exercise?<\/li>\n<li>What\u2019s the <strong><em>downside<\/em><\/strong> of how things are now?<\/li>\n<li>What might be the <strong><em>good things<\/em><\/strong> about quitting drinking?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><strong>N<\/strong>eed<strong>:\u00a0<\/strong>Questions usually ask about an <strong><em>urgency<\/em><\/strong> for change to happen.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px\"><strong>Example questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n<ul>\n<li>What <strong><em>needs<\/em><\/strong> to happen?<\/li>\n<li>How <strong><em>serious or urgent<\/em><\/strong> does this feel to you?<\/li>\n<li>What do you think <strong><em>has<\/em><\/strong> to change?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>By asking these types of questions, you may be surprised by how much change talk you will hear. And a good rule of thumb is to think about the response you would like to hear since the ratio of change talk to\u00a0sustain talk is a predictor of change actually occurring. And next month, we will continue with additional ways of evoking change talk.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-186 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1380\/2025\/09\/images.jpeg\" alt=\"images\" width=\"370\" height=\"207\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>For more information about Motivational Interviewing resources, contact Eunice Akinyi Okumu, by phone (919) 843-2532, or by email, <a href=\"mailto:eunice_okumu@med.unc.edu\">eunice_okumu@med.unc.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When a practitioner works with a client, the practitioner can significantly influence how much change talk (movement towards changing behavior) and sustain talk (movement towards maintaining current behavior) they will hear. And the difference is not when the practitioner is just being nice to the client, but rather, from strategic approaches that actually evoke change &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/2025\/11\/evoking-change-talk\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Evoking Change Talk\">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":[329,359,310],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mi-process-evoking","category-mi-questions-evoking-change-talk","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":"MI Process: Evoking","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/category\/motivational-interviewing-blog\/mi-process-evoking\/"},{"name":"MI Questions: Evoking Change Talk","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/category\/motivational-interviewing-blog\/mi-process-evoking\/mi-questions-evoking-change-talk\/"},{"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\/17785","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=17785"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20037,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17785\/revisions\/20037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}