Avoiding the Expert Trap
We care, and we are genuinely concerned at times. We have terrific ideas for the other person to try, yet if we approach the conversation as the sole expert in the room, we can cause a rupture in our rapport.
Instead, what would it be like to steer clear of the expert trap and share the table of expertise with our clients?
Could we actually enhance our treatment outcomes and strengthen the helping relationship?
The answer to these questions may lie within the practice of Motivational Interviewing (MI).
MI is used in mental health settings to increase service effectiveness through enhancing engagement, retention, and long-term behavior change. MI is particularly helpful when working with people who are reluctant to engage in mental health services and/or distrust mental health practitioners. Outcomes include increased self-efficacy for managing health conditions and decreased depression and high-risk behaviors.
One important aspect of Motivational Interviewing is the MI spirit, which can be described as having four distinct and synergistic components: partnership, compassion, acceptance, and evocation. The spirit of MI is a mindset and heartset that informs our conversations with others. It is the good soil that nourishes change, the background music without which the words are hollow. Simply by wanting to help people change, we bring some of the heartset and mindset vital to an MI approach and in some ways are already expressing MI spirit.
This self-reflection exercise helps you move from a tense expert stance to an open, relaxed, and curious stance that is consistent with the spirit of MI.
Some MI practitioners find it helpful to keep exercises like this somewhere close so that they can review them when needed. Regular, even daily, self-reflection on our practice increases our ability to recognize opportunities to shift into even more effective MI practice.
Want to learn more about motivational interviewing? Get another free exercise in my blog written with Jennifer Frey, PhD: Turning “What’s Wrong” into “What’s Strong.”
- Examples of how to use MI to support people experiencing a variety of mental health issues
- Activities to help you more deeply explore the fundamental concepts, spirit, and tools of MI
- Sample conversation scripts that demonstrate the MI skills in practice
- Exercises to assess your progress and gain confidence in your skills
Most importantly, this toolkit offers a variety of flexible opportunities for you to actively practice the core skills of MI: Use them on your own, with a partner, with a team of colleagues, or within an MI learning community.
Ali Hall, JD, MINT Certified Trainer, is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT), a MINT Certified Trainer, and an independent consultant and trainer. Ali currently serves on the MINT Board of Directors, focusing on professional skill development for MI practitioners and trainers. Ali served as a Lead Trainer for the International MINT Training for New Trainers (TNT) in Warsaw (2019), New Orleans (2018) and Berlin (2015). Ali has designed and facilitated more than 2500 Motivational Interviewing (MI) workshops for criminal justice, wraparound services, chronic disease and diabetes self-management educators, health care practitioners, health coaches, telephonic health service providers, social services providers, behavioral health clinicians, social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists, and provides training for trainers in evidence-based practices. Ali regularly presents at national and regional conferences for wraparound, criminal justice, health care providers, public health leaders and key organizational administrators.
Ali regularly provides MI coding and evaluation training, coding services and skill development coaching, and provides consultation to systems for establishing communities of practice and for effective, sustainable MI implementation. Ali is the co-developer of the Motivational Interviewing Competency Assessment (MICA), a coding and coaching tool for MI skill improvement.
Ali regularly designs and evaluates MI interventions for funded research, including large national and international studies. Ali’s work with agencies includes creating skills development curricula for staff and materials for those served. Ali also regularly provides workshops in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), applications of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and integration of MI and skill building evidence-based practices. Ali is the co-author of an MI skill-building manual and toolkit, to be released in late 2020 (published by PESI Behavioral Health Continuing Education). Ali also serves as a reviewer for the National Registry for Evidence-Based Practices and Programs (NREPP).
Ali spent her undergraduate years at Occidental College in Los Angeles and completed her graduate studies in organizational behavior at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, as well as her J.D. at the Cornell University School of Law. In her spare time, Ali is a cold-water marathon swimmer, raising funds for under-resourced kid’s charities.
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Ali Hall receives compensation as an independent consultant and trainer and has an employment relationship with University of California-Davis. She is a member of MINT and is the co-developer of Motivational Interviewing Competency Assessment. She receives royalties as a published author. Ali Hall receives a speaking honorarium, recording, and book royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Ali Hall serves on the board of directors of MINT.
