YOUR WORK. YOUR PRACTICE.
Meet the person where the conversation begins: with their concerns, their experience and their questions about what they want next.
Someone may want to explore a change, understand support options or explain why an earlier approach did not fit. Practice learning what they are asking for and making your role in the conversation clear.
Explore the person's own reasons for considering change, what they value and what gives them confidence. In information or support conversations, practice responding to the actual request and checking how your contribution fits.
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
People working in substance use support bring different credentials and lived experience. Practice noticing your expectations, clarifying what you can offer and responding to the person’s own goals. Connect feedback with the responsibilities of your particular role.
A question to carry into practice
Whose goal am I working toward, and how can I check that with the person?
NAADAC, the Association for Addiction Professionals / NCC AP · Professional association and certification commission
Explore the values and ethical responsibilities of addiction professionals, including role-specific guidance across the continuum of support.
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
Understand the person's reasons, mixed feelings and experience of earlier attempts.
Explore what an evening routine does for the person and what they might want to be different.
Make room for questions about options and clarify the person's own goal.
Find out what the person wants shared and what needs to be checked through the service's process.
The daily conversation rotates within your field. Additional conversation choices depend on your account's access.
FROM PRACTICE TO YOUR NEXT CONVERSATION
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.
Revisit a moment when you thought you knew the person's goal. Consider which words supported that understanding and what you would want to ask next.
Build my practice home →WHY BECOMING MI
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 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 →