AUDIENCE: INTRODUCTORY

Motivational Interviewing

Learn how to apply motivational interviewing techniques through practical skill-based workshops, modules, and sessions.

About the Education

This education introduces the building blocks of motivational interviewing (MI) and provides practical techniques you can apply immediately in your clinical work. You’ll explore the core spirit of MI and the power of “change talk,” and gain a deeper understanding of the four processes of MI—engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning, as well as key OARS communication skills: open-ended questions, affirmations, reflective listening, and summarizing.

Whether you're learning MI for the first time or refreshing your existing knowledge, these offerings provide an effective way to enhance your ability to motivate patients toward their treatment goals and elevate your practice.

Explore your Options

  • Essentials Course - A four-hour online course for those new to MI and those seeking a refresher. Participants will build knowledge and practice skills consistent with MI behaviors, and reflect on how to apply them in clinical settings.
  • Microlearning Videos - Short, 10-minute videos designed to build practical MI skills, strengthen rapport, explore patients’ motivation for change, and guide conversations about pain management in clinical practice.
  • Live Workshop - A full-day, in-depth training experience that offers immersive practice in the foundational elements of MI.
  • Resources - Access a variety of session recordings and materials covering key MI topics and current issues in the field.

Featured Course

  • ASAM Motivational Interviewing Essentials

    The ASAM Motivational Interviewing (MI) Essentials is a 4-hour online course designed for clinicians to practice skills that are consistent with motivational interviewer behaviors and to reflect on how to employ these skills in their clinical settings.

    • Register
      • Non-Member - $139
      • Regular Member - $99
      • Retired - $99
      • Early Career Physician - $99
      • Resident - $69
      • Student - $69
      • Associate - $69
      • ASAM Staff - Free!
      • International Member - $99
      • Emeritus Member - $99
      • Provisional Member - $99
      • Fellow Member - $99
      • Honorary Member - $99
      • CRT Member - $99

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ASAM Clinical Tips: Motivational Interviewing

This microlearning series focuses on the framework and foundational skills of motivational interviewing: Spirit, Four Tasks, and OARS to help you build rapport with your patients, explore their intrinsic motivation for change, and guide conversations about pain management. 

  • Framing Conversations for Change: Spirit & Core Principles of MI (Video: 10 min, 38 seconds) In this video, Carolyn Chan, MD, MHS, and Ross Lawson, MD, explore the spirit and core principles of motivational interviewing. They break down MI-consistent behaviors, apply the Partnership, Acceptance, Compassion, and Empowerment (PACE) framework, and examine the paradoxical effects of coercion and common clinical pitfalls. The goal of this video is to create supportive, nonjudgmental environments that promote collaboration and meaningful change for patients with chronic pain. 
  • Guiding Patient-Centered Interactions: The Four Tasks of MI (Video: 10 min, 52 seconds) In this video, Carla Marienfeld, MD, DFAPA, DFASAM, explains how to use the four tasks of motivational interviewing (MI): Engaging, Focusing, Evoking, and Planning, to structure conversations about pain management, foster collaboration, and encourage patients’ intrinsic motivation to change. This video emphasizes the role of a clinician and the goal of the conversation when engaging with patients experiencing chronic pain.  
  • Conducting Effective MI Conversations: OARS & Change Talk (Video: 9 min, 21 seconds) In this video, Brian Hurley, MD, MBA, DFASAM, discusses how to effectively evoke change talk using OARS skills: Open-ended questions, Affirmations, Reflections, and Summaries, alongside informing and advising, to facilitate meaningful clinical conversations. The goal of this video is to help clinicians resolve ambivalence, guide discussions toward positive change, and promote self-efficacy in patients with chronic pain.

Acknowledgement: This activity is supported by an independent educational grant from the Opioid Analgesic REMS Program Companies. Please see https://www.opioidanalgesicrems.com/Resources/Docs/List_of_RPC_Companies.pdf for a listing of REMS Program Companies. This activity is intended to be fully compliant with the Opioid Analgesic REMS education requirements issued by the US. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).