SAMHSA · Federal workforce resource developed with peer input
Core Competencies for Peer Workers (opens in a new tab)
Explore collaborative relationships, sharing lived experience and continuing development within the peer role.
YOUR WORK. YOUR PRACTICE.
Motivational Interviewing (MI) in peer and family support
Bring your lived experience into a shared conversation that makes room for the other person's perspective, choices and own way forward.
Your experience belongs in the conversation.
Someone may ask about your experience, want company as they explore a resource or need you to hear what a note missed. Practice responding as a peer or family support worker, with attention to the person's request and what you can offer.
MI can help you explore what matters to someone and the changes they want to consider. Its listening and information-sharing skills also support mutual understanding, relevant personal sharing and clear agreements about support.
What is Motivational Interviewing?
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative, goal-oriented way of talking that helps people explore and strengthen their own motivation for change. Careful listening, shared focus and respect for choice guide the conversation. These skills also help when the immediate task is to understand a concern, explain information or agree what happens next.
BECOMING WITHIN YOUR WORK
Grow in your peer identity while staying connected to yourself.
Your lived experience, values and relationship with the person are part of the work. Intentional MI practice helps you consider when to share, how to preserve mutuality and how to leave room for a different path. Your boundaries, support and life outside the role matter, too.
A question to carry into practice
How can I bring my experience in a way that supports this person’s voice and choice?
Explore professional identity and practice resources
National Association of Peer Supporters (N.A.P.S.) · Peer professional association · resource hosted by PeerTAC
National Practice Guidelines for Peer Specialists and Supervisors (opens in a new tab)
Explore peer-support values and how supervisors can support their expression in practice.
Explore the resources that fit your role, alongside your organization’s guidance and local credentialing requirements. These independent resources are offered for learning; their inclusion does not imply affiliation or endorsement.
CONVERSATIONS YOU CAN PRACTICE
Bring the realities of your work.
Share a relevant part of your experience
Respond to what the person wants to know and leave room for them to decide what fits.
Keep their voice in a resource conversation
Help the person identify and ask their own questions about support.
Agree what contact can look like
Talk about the support available and what each person can expect between meetings.
Make room for a family member's perspective
Hear their own concerns and the support they are seeking in their role.
The daily conversation rotates within your field. Additional conversation choices depend on your account's access.
FROM PRACTICE TO YOUR NEXT CONVERSATION
A few minutes today. Something to try tomorrow.
Have a short back-and-forth with a fictional partner. Get specific feedback on your responses, choose something to try next, and return to your saved conversations as you develop.
Reflect on how your experience influenced what you heard. What could you share, ask or clarify to leave room for the other person's own meaning?
Build my practice home →WHY BECOMING MI
Becoming is personal and professional.
Becoming MI connects daily practice with the person and professional you want to become. Try a response, consider feedback, and carry something useful into your next conversation.
Your whole well-being belongs here.
Your values, responsibilities and well-being meet in your work. We make room for that whole experience, including the resources and support you need.
Explore AMIGA’s approach to becoming →