This book is the first to use Motivational Interviewing (MI) in coaching, emphasizing MI's foundational role in coaching. It explores how coaching aligns with MI principles and provides practical guidance on integrating MI skills into coaching practice. This book includes authentic coaching scenarios, research on MI effectiveness, user-friendly features, coaching forms, and exercises to facilitate learning and application.
From the Authors
What is special or unique about your book ?
This book is written by and for coaches and is the first book on using Motivational Interviewing (MI) in coaching. It presents the case that professional coaching builds upon several research-based behavior change theories and methods, specifically MI. Most importantly, it asserts that MI can serve as a foundational base for coaching and shows how coaching fits hand in glove with MI. It offers an expanded definition of the coach approach, along with applications for using MI in coaching.
Coaching, though distinct from counseling, shares MI’s common assumptions, beliefs, and practices for supporting people’s change and growth. After highlighting the shared theories of coaching and MI, this book details the specific ways that research-based MI skills are used in the coaching process, from beginning to end. After explaining why coaching with MI is important, this book elaborates on ways to use MI skills in coaching practice.
What are the important highlights of this book?
Authentic scenarios (fictionalized) demonstrate how the MI skills are incorporated into both health and wellness coaching and life coaching examples. The specific skills presented in each chapter are then illustrated through short and extended examples. Most examples are presented in a two-column format with narrative comments highlighting the skills. A few extended coaching cases show the progression of MI-consistent coaching skills throughout the four tasks of engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning. We included a dedicated chapter on the evidence of coaching itself, a summary of the evidence base for MI, and the emerging evidence of coaching with MI. Additionally, we have an expanded document (available online) summarizing the evidence on MI, its application in the coaching profession, and the research to date on the effectiveness of coaching with MI.
The book simplifies concepts with user-friendly features such as bulleted lists, tables, charts, figures, and boxes. Additionally, some figures are designed to visually depict how MI spirit and skills can fit naturally into the sequence of the beginning, middle, and end of the coaching session. Numerous coaching forms with examples are provided in the text, and readers can access blank handouts online for use in their professional learning communities or with clients.
One entire chapter is dedicated to building and improving coaching with MI. That chapter provides a range of forms that coaches can use to help assess and give feedback on their own (or others) practice and then identify areas for further growth. A “Take it Further” section at the end of each chapter invites readers to review, apply, and expand on the concepts of the chapter. Questions and activities support the understanding and application of important concepts, whether working individually or as part of a group.