Quotes from William R. Miller

People are the undisputed experts on themselves. No one has been with them longer, or knows them better than they do themselves. In MI, the helper is a companion who typically does less than half of the talking.

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing personal opinion. —PROVERBS 18:2

One of the many insights of Carl Rogers was that when people feel unacceptable they are immobilized, unable to change. It is, paradoxically, when people experience acceptance that they are freed to change.

If you treat an individual as he is, he will stay as he is, but if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be. —JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

to sense the client's inner world of private personal meanings as if it were your own, but without ever losing the 'as if' quality

Henri Nouwen (2005) observed that "anyone who willingly enters into the pain of a stranger is truly a remarkable person," and we agree

Ambivalence is simultaneously wanting and not wanting something, or wanting both of two incompatible things. It has been human nature since the dawn of time.

This review also pointed to six common components of effective brief treatment (cf. Miller & Sanchez, 1994), summarized by the acronym FRAMES: Feedback of personal status relative to norms Responsibility for personal change Advice to change Menu of options from which to choose in pursuing change Empathic counselor style Support for self-efficacy What began as an interest in motivation for treatment had broadened now to focusing on motivation for change.

People are more likely to be persuaded by what they hear themselves say.

MI is done "for" and "with" a person. It is an active collaboration between experts. People are the undisputed experts on themselves. No one has been with them longer, or knows them better than they do themselves.

El acercamiento es un principio; mantenerse unidos, un progreso; trabajar juntos, el verdadero éxito. HENRY FORD

In their confluence, these complex therapeutic skills may over time become a simpler way of being.

Motivational interviewing is a collaborative conversation style for strengthening a person's own motivation and commitment to change.

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness, concerning all acts of initiative and creation. There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision. —JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

these four person-centered conditions convey what we mean by "acceptance." One honors each person's absolute worth and potential as a human being, recognizes and supports the person's irrevocable autonomy to choose his or her own way, seeks through accurate empathy to understand the other's perspective, and affirms the person's strengths and efforts.

I'm so miserable without you, it's almost like you're here.

It is also possible within sequential coding to measure the extent to which clinicians recognize and respond appropriately to change talk by enumerating clinician behaviors that immediately follow occurrences of client change talk (OARS; see Chapter 14).

It takes two to speak truth—One to speak, and another to hear. —HENRY DAVID THOREAU

client openness versus defensiveness, change talk versus sustain talk, is very much a product of the therapeutic relationship. "Resistance" and motivation occur in an interpersonal context.

The first of four basic processes in MI is to engage the client in a collaborative working relationship.

developing compassion: There is a developmental process for cultivating compassion for others. . . . The first step is knowledge. . . . Then you need to constantly reflect and internalize this knowledge . . . to the point where it will become a conviction. It becomes integrated into your state of mind. . . . Then you get to a point where it becomes spontaneous. (The Dalai Lama & Ekman, 2008, pp.

The sciences do not try to explain, they hardly even try to interpret, they mainly make models. By a model is meant a mathematical construct, which with the addition of certain verbal interpretations, describes observed phenomena. The justification of such a mathematical construct is solely and precisely that it is expected to work. —JOHN VON NEUMANN