Table Of ContentPraise for
Motivational Interviewing
for Mental Health Clinicians
“Frey and Hall have done something remarkable: added something entirely new to the MI world.
Literally breathing life into the heartset of learning MI, this toolkit gently guides practitioners into a
self-reflective and compassionate review of their practice and learning MI. Mental health providers
have another must-add book for their libraries.”
-David B. Rosengren, PhD,
President & CEO, Prevention Research Institute,
Author of Building Motivational Interviewing Skills: A Practitioner Workbook
“Motivational Interviewing for Mental Health Clinicians provides the tools you need to integrate the
skills and strategies of motivational interviewing (MI) into your day-to-day work. Offering a
cornucopia of activities, exercises, and invitations to self-reflection, Frey and Hall are expert guides
to putting in place the building blocks of an MI practice that fits you and feels like yours. Speaking
in a friendly, encouraging, and knowledgeable voice, they invite you to join them in a step-by-step
process of thinking about what you do—its challenges as well as its successes—and trying out new
ideas and approaches for enhancing motivation and commitment to change. They will help you deepen
your empathy for your clients, your compassion for their struggles, and your celebration of their
triumphs—and help you feel more like the practitioner you want to be. With examples galore of
conversations about all kinds of problems in all kinds of settings, Motivational Interviewing for
Mental Health Clinicians is a practical, concrete resource for every practitioner who wants to master
the MI way of being with people.”
-Allan Zuckoff, PhD,
Author of Finding Your Way to Change: How the Power of Motivational
Interviewing Can Reveal What You Want and Help You Get There
“This is a refreshing and fun book that is a great resource for busy clinicians and anyone wanting
to improve, practice, or hone their MI skills in a purposeful, practical, and effective way. There’s
a nice combination of didactics, client-practitioner scenarios/dialogues, and case examples, along
with practitioner exercises peppered expertly throughout each chapter for on-the-spot skill practice.
This is a book I can pick up after a long day and become energized to utilize these strategies with
my clientele. The activities are practical and able to be completed in reasonable amount of time.”
-Nikki Cockern, PhD, LLP,
Clinical Psychologist, Clinical Manager, Assistant Professor, Wayne State University
“Being a trainer who has done numerous trainings on mental health, I found the practitioner
exercises, especially for the MI spirit, extremely practical. I can see myself using that format for my
training presentations. The exercises are new and address the real content of MI. Great book!”
-Maurice Bulls, MEd,
Executive Director, Behavior Change Consulting Institute
“This is a highly relevant and user-friendly package of resources for which I’ve been awaiting for a
decade. It will be an indispensable resource in my work to further support my interprofessional teams
to incorporate MI knowledge and skills in outpatient, inpatient, and crisis settings. It will occupy a
prominent place in my professional library.”
-Tim Godden, BSc, BAA(J), BSW, MSW,
Clinical Supervisor and Trainer, Toronto, Canada
“This book has a clear, simple, direct style that belies its sophistication. It would be a good adjunct
to an organized program of MI instruction for practitioners in the mental health field, but is also
clear enough that it would work for independent study. There’s enough detail and nuance in it that
intermediate/advanced learners would also benefit from it as well as people just starting out with MI.
My favorite thing about the book is the range of examples: it’s often said that there are ‘many right
ways’ to do MI, but there are few books that actively demonstrate this as well as this one, something
that reflects the years of experience the authors have had as MI trainers.”
-Guy Undrill, MB ChB PhD,
Retired Consultant Psychiatrist, Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust
MOTIVATIONAL
INTERVIEWING
MENTAL HEALTH CLINICIANS
FOR
A Toolkit for Skills
Enhancement
Jennifer Frey, PhD and Ali Hall, JD
Foreword by William R. Miller, PhD
Copyright © 2021 Jennifer Frey and Ali Hall
Published by
PESI Publishing
3839 White Ave
Eau Claire, WI 54703
Cover: Amy Rubenzer
Editing: Candace Baker, MSW
Layout: Amy Rubenzer & Bookmasters
ISBN: 9781683732013
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
pesipublishing.com
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jennifer Frey, PhD
Jen is a licensed psychologist practicing in Washington, DC. She is also a motivational interviewing
(MI) consultant, trainer, and coach working with systems, organizations, and practitioners to
improve service effectiveness. Jen has served in a number of clinical leadership roles including
founding and running a homeless outreach team, supervising practitioners, implementing
evidence-based practices, establishing communities of practice, and serving on the board of a youth
services organization. She develops clinical protocols and publishes on program evaluation and
implementation of evidence-based and best practices. She has been a member of the Motivational
Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) since 1998. For additional information, please see https://
motivationalinterviewing.org/profile/JenniferFrey.
Ali Hall, JD
Ali is a member of MINT and is an independent consultant and trainer. She designs and facilitates MI
workshops in a wide variety of contexts and provides training for trainers in evidence-based practices.
She is a codeveloper of the Motivational Interviewing Competency Assessment (MICA; Jackson,
Butterworth, Hall, & Gilbert, 2015), a coding and coaching tool for MI skill improvement.
Ali completed her graduate studies in organizational behavior and work motivation at the School
of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, and her JD at the Cornell University School
of Law. In her spare time, Ali participates in marathon swimming events in order to raise funds for
under-resourced kids’ charities. For additional information, please see https://motivationalinterviewing.
org/profile/AliHall.
v
DEDICATION
For Neil, whose friendship, love, and spirit makes life even better than I thought it could be.
For you, for taking this journey with us.
—JF
For LTH, whose love and perfect presence is everything.
For those we serve, whose growth always helps us along our individual and collective change journeys.
—AH
vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are so many people who have contributed to our work on this toolkit. We would like to
thank Bill Miller, Steve Rollnick, Terri Moyers, Denise Ernst, and all the members of the MINT.
You continually nurture and deepen our knowledge about MI and how to train others to use MI
effectively. We would also like to thank the thousands of people we’ve trained and worked with over
the years who have shaped our MI practice.
We would like to thank Karsyn Morse and Linda Jackson at PESI Publishing for all of your support.
We have been so fortunate to get to work with you.
We would also like to thank our editor, Candace Baker, MSW. Your thorough work and dedication
to reader-friendly content substantially improved this toolkit. Thank you!
ix
