Advancing Motivational Interviewing: An Experiential Skills Guide for Mental Health Providers

Move your motivational interviewing skills from theory to real life.

As a mental health provider, you’re familiar with the spirit of motivational interviewing (MI): partnership, acceptance, compassion, and empowerment, as well as the skills that help you build a strong therapeutic connection. But when you’re faced with real-world challenges—clients who are ambivalent, silent, or feel stalled—how do you translate these principles into action?

Advancing Motivational Interviewing is here to help you bridge that gap. Intended for seasoned MI practitioners, this hands-on guide is packed with experiential exercises, conversation strategies, and sample dialogues to take your MI skills to the next level.

Inside, you’ll learn how to:

• Engage clients who seem “noncompliant,” disengaged, or discouraged
• Navigate uncomfortable silences or sensitive topics
• Balance professional boundaries with genuine self-disclosure
• Avoid getting stuck in the “fixing reflex”
• Make the most out of limited time in short sessions
• Adapt MI principles to virtual and web-based interactions

Whether you’re working in behavioral health, education, the justice system, or primary care, this book will help you break through the “stuck points” that keep you from using MI to its full potential.

Kristin L. Dempsey, EdD, LMFT, LPCC, is a psychotherapist in private practice, counselor educator, trainer/consultant, and member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). She is the author of The Harm Reduction Workbook for Addiction (2024) and collaborated with Dr. Kenneth Minkoff on The Mental Health and Substance Use Recovery Workbook (2026). For additional information about Kristin, please visit https://motivationalinterviewing.org/profile/KristinDempsey.

Ali Hall, JD, is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT), a MINT certified trainer, and an independent consultant and trainer. Ali currently serves as a director emeritus for the MINT Board of Directors, where she focuses on professional skill development for MI practitioners and trainers. She created the Cultivating Hope activity deck and is the codeveloper of the Motivational Interviewing Competency Assessment (MICA), a coding and coaching tool for MI skill improvement, and coauthor of the book Motivational Interviewing for Mental Health Clinicians (2021). For additional information, please see https://motivationalinterviewing.org/profile/AliHall or www.alihalltraining.com.