Motivational Interviewing Questions: 60 Examples by Process

Motivational interviewing questions are open questions that invite a person to say, in their own words, why and how they might change. They're short, they carry no hidden advice, and they aim at the person's own reasons rather than yours. Below are 60 motivational interviewing questions grouped by the four processes Miller and Rollnick describe (engaging, focusing, evoking and planning), with the importance and confidence rulers, what to say after each answer, a sample dialogue and the questions to avoid.

If you want the skills underneath first, our guide to motivational interviewing for coaches covers OARS, change talk and sustain talk in depth. This page is the question bank you keep open during a session. And if you coach on Coachful and want these questions turned into a between-session worksheet or check-in, our team will build it in your account for free.

What makes a question a motivational interviewing question

The Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) describes MI as a collaborative, goal-oriented style of communication with particular attention to the language of change. Four ideas sit under it, which MINT calls the spirit of MI: partnership, acceptance, compassion and evocation. The last one matters most for questions. Evocation assumes the person already has reasons and resources for change, so your question's job is to draw them out, not to supply them.

That rules out a lot of ordinary helping questions. Compare these:

The urge to fix things for people has a name in MI: the righting reflex. Most bad MI questions are the righting reflex with a question mark on the end. A useful check before you ask anything: would this question still make sense if the person decided not to change? If it wouldn't, it's probably advice.

Engaging questions: build the working relationship

MINT calls engaging the foundation of MI. You're trying to understand the person's world before you steer anywhere. Use these in a first session, and again whenever the conversation feels like a negotiation.

1. What brings you here today?
2. What would you like me to understand about your situation?
3. What's a typical day like for you right now?
4. How has this been affecting the rest of your life?
5. What have you already tried, and what did each attempt teach you?
6. When other people have tried to help with this, what was unhelpful?
7. Who in your life knows about this, and what do they say?
8. What matters most to you about how this turns out?
9. What would make our time together worth it for you?

Follow most of these with a reflection, not another question; five questions in a row is an interrogation.

Focusing questions: agree where the conversation is going

Focusing negotiates an agenda that draws on both your expertise and theirs. People often arrive with several concerns, and the one they lead with isn't always the one that matters.

1. Of everything you've mentioned, where would you like to start?
2. If we could make progress on just one thing in the next month, what should it be?
3. What would you like to be different by the time we finish working together?
4. Is there anything that should be on our list that isn't yet?
5. You mentioned your evenings earlier. Would it be OK to come back to that?
6. How will we know we're working on the right thing?
7. How does this connect to the bigger things you want for your life?

Question 14 is asking permission, and it's one of the most useful moves in MI. It keeps the person in charge of the agenda even when you're the one raising a topic.

Evoking questions by type of change talk

Evoking is where MI differs most from ordinary coaching. MINT describes it as normalizing ambivalence and exploring it without judgement so it can be resolved. In practice you listen for change talk (anything the person says in favor of change) and ask questions that invite more of it. Miller and Rollnick's third edition grouped change talk under the acronym DARN-CAT, and trainers still teach it that way.

The first four (DARN) are preparatory: the person is thinking about change. The last three (CAT) are mobilizing: the person is moving toward it. Don't rush from one to the other. Pushing for commitment while someone is still weighing reasons usually produces a polite yes that evaporates by Thursday.

Desire

1. What would you like to be different?
2. How would you like things to be a year from now?
3. What are you hoping for when you picture this going well?

Ability

1. If you decided to change this, how might you do it?
2. What have you managed before that took this kind of effort?
3. What strengths would you bring to this?

Reasons

1. What are the three best reasons for you to make this change?
2. What would be the upside of changing, for you and for the people around you?
3. How would this change help with the things you care about most?

Need

1. How important is it for you to deal with this now rather than later?
2. What makes this harder to ignore than it was a year ago?
3. What concerns you most about how things are going?

Commitment, activation and taking steps

1. What are you ready to do?
2. What do you intend to do between now and our next session?
3. What have you already done that moves you in this direction?
4. What's one step you're willing to try this week?

More evoking questions: elaboration, past, future and values

A University of Washington MI training deck lists the standard ways to evoke change talk: evocative questions, asking for elaboration and examples, looking back, looking forward, querying extremes, change rulers, exploring goals and values, and decisional balance. Here are questions for each.

Elaboration and examples

1. Tell me more about that.
2. Can you give me a recent example?
3. What else?

Looking back and looking forward

1. What were things like before this became a problem?
2. When were you at your best with this, and what was different then?
3. If nothing changes, where do you see this in five years?
4. If you made this change, how might an ordinary week look different?

Querying extremes

1. What's the worst that could happen if you keep going as you are?
2. What's the best that could happen if you make this change?

Goals and values

1. What do you care about most in your life right now?
2. How does this habit fit with the person you want to be?
3. What would you want the people closest to you to say about how you handled this?

Values questions work best after you've done some values work together. Our core values assessment gives clients a list to start from, and the values clarification exercise shows how to run it in session.

The importance and confidence rulers

Rulers are the most portable tool in MI. You ask for a number from 0 to 10, then ask why the number isn't lower. The question about the lower number is the clever part: to answer it, the person has to give you their reasons for change.

1. On a scale of 0 to 10, how important is it for you to make this change?
2. Why are you at a 6 and not a 3?
3. What would it take to move you from a 6 to a 7?
4. On a scale of 0 to 10, how confident are you that you could do it if you decided to?
5. What makes you a 5 and not a 2?
6. What would help you feel a little more confident?

Ask both rulers. Importance and confidence are different problems. Someone at importance 9 and confidence 3 doesn't need more reasons; they need a plan they believe in. Someone at importance 3 doesn't need a plan yet. Avoid asking "why not a 10?", which invites the person to list every reason they can't change. Our guide to scaling questions in coaching has more follow-ups for any 0 to 10 scale.

Decisional balance questions

Decisional balance asks about both sides of staying the same and both sides of changing. Ask about the good things in the current situation first. People relax when you take their reasons for not changing seriously, and what they say next tends to be more honest.

1. What do you like about the way things are now?
2. What's not so good about it?
3. What might be good about changing?
4. What worries you about changing?

Planning questions: the how of change

MINT describes planning as exploring the how of change, building a plan from the person's own insight, and it notes that planning is optional. Move into it when you hear commitment language and the person asks, in some form, "So what do I do?"

1. What do you think you'll do?
2. What's your first step, and when will you take it?
3. What might get in the way, and what will you do if it does?
4. Who could support you with this?
5. How will you know it's working?
6. On a scale of 0 to 10, how confident are you in this plan?

If question 60 comes back below a 7, shrink the plan before the person leaves. A smaller plan they believe in beats an ambitious one they don't. Our SMART goals template is one way to write the plan down.

What to say after the answer

Questions start the work and reflections do most of it. When you hear change talk, reflect it back, slightly strengthened, and let the person keep talking.

• Client: "I suppose I'd have more energy for the kids." Coach: "Being there for your kids is a big part of why this matters."
• Client: "I've done harder things than this." Coach: "You know you can do difficult things when you decide to."
• Client: "I can't keep working until midnight." Coach: "Something has to give, and you'd rather it wasn't your health."

When you hear sustain talk ("I don't have time," "It's not that bad"), don't argue. A double-sided reflection holds both sides: "Part of you thinks now isn't the time, and part of you is worried about where this is heading." Then wait. The skill of hearing what's under a sentence is covered in our guide to the levels of listening.

A short example dialogue

A client who runs a small accounting practice says she wants to stop working evenings but keeps saying yes to rush jobs.

• Coach: On a scale of 0 to 10, how important is it to you to get your evenings back?
• Client: Maybe a 7.
• Coach: Why a 7 and not a 4?
• Client: Because my daughter asked why I'm always on my laptop. That stung.
• Coach: That question stayed with you.
• Client: It did. And I'm tired. I make mistakes after nine.
• Coach: So it's your daughter, and it's the quality of the work. What else?
• Client: Honestly, I'm scared that if I say no, the clients will leave.
• Coach: Part of you wants the evenings back, and part of you is worried saying no will cost you clients. How confident are you, 0 to 10, that you could protect two evenings a week?
• Client: A 4.
• Coach: What makes it a 4 and not a 1?
• Client: My two biggest clients would understand. It's the new ones I'm nervous about.
• Coach: What would you be willing to try with the two who'd understand?

The coach never suggested a boundary script or asked why she hadn't done this already. Every reason came from the client.

Questions to avoid

• Why questions about the problem. "Why do you keep doing that?" invites a defense. Ask what instead.
• Leading questions. "Wouldn't it be better if...?" is advice with a question mark.
• Stacked questions. Ask one and stop. Given three, people answer the easiest.
• "Why not a 10?" It hands the person a list of reasons to stay put.

What the research does and doesn't say

MI has a large evidence base, mostly in health care and addiction treatment rather than coaching. A 2013 meta-analysis of 48 randomized trials in medical settings (9,618 participants) found a statistically significant, modest advantage for MI over comparison conditions. Miller and Rose's theory of MI proposes two active ingredients: a relational one (empathy and the spirit of MI) and a technical one (evoking and reinforcing change talk). A 2019 meta-analysis of change talk subtypes found the subtypes aren't equally meaningful in predicting outcomes, so treat DARN-CAT as a listening aid rather than a scoring system.

Two honest limits for coaches. First, most of these trials studied clinicians, not coaches, so the effect sizes don't transfer directly. Second, MI is used in treating addiction and other clinical problems, and a coaching client who surfaces one of those needs a referral, not a better question. MINT's resource library lists training routes if you want supervised practice.

How to use motivational interviewing questions between sessions in Coachful

The questions travel well into the week. Here is how coaches set them up in Coachful, all included in your membership.

Put the rulers in a check-in

Create a coaching flow (Create > Coaching flows) with two number scales, importance and confidence, followed by a text question: "What made you choose that number and not a lower one?" Schedule it weekly. You'll walk into each session knowing whether the person needs more reasons or more confidence, and the answers sit on their client record.

Send a decisional balance worksheet before the session

Tools > Explore includes a Change balance worksheet with four boxes: benefits of changing, costs of changing, benefits of staying the same and costs of staying the same. Make it yours, then attach it to a session type as prep. The client sees it under Before your session with a Start worksheet button, and you read the answers before the call. Our guide to creating coaching worksheets covers the builder in detail.

Turn the plan into a goal and a habit

Once you hear commitment, the planning answers become a goal with a target date and a habit with a reminder in the client app. The goal page has a milestone path and a weekly reflection that asks what went well, what got in the way and what they'll do differently next week. That reflection is a gentle planning conversation the client has with themselves.

Watch for the clients going quiet

Ambivalence often shows up as silence. The Clients overview flags who has gone quiet, so you can open the next session with an engaging question instead of a lecture about missed check-ins.

Let our team build it for you

If you'd rather not build any of this yourself, Coachful's team will set it up in your account for free on every plan: the ruler check-in, the change balance worksheet or a whole program for a health or habit-change niche. Ask from Create > We'll build it for you, describe what you want, and the team usually replies within about 24 hours. Everything is built in your own account so you can edit it afterwards. Here's what the free white-glove service includes. Coaches in this space may also want our page for health coaches, or the free coaching questions bank for questions beyond MI.

Frequently asked questions

What are the five key questions in motivational interviewing?

There's no official list of five. If you want five that cover the ground, use: What would you like to be different? Why might you want to make this change? How might you go about it if you decided to? On a scale of 0 to 10, how important is it to you, and why not a lower number? What do you think you'll do? Together they touch desire, reasons, ability, importance and planning.

What does DARN-CAT stand for in motivational interviewing?

Desire, Ability, Reasons and Need (preparatory change talk), then Commitment, Activation and Taking steps (mobilizing change talk). It's the acronym Miller and Rollnick's third edition used for the kinds of things people say in favor of change. Use it to recognize change talk so you can reflect it, not as a checklist to work through.

What is an example of an open-ended question in motivational interviewing?

"What concerns you, if anything, about how things are going?" is a good one. It can't be answered with yes or no, it doesn't assume the person wants to change, and the answer is often change talk. "Tell me more about that" and "What else?" are open too, and they're the two follow-ups you'll use most.

How do you use the importance ruler in motivational interviewing?

Ask, "On a scale of 0 to 10, how important is it for you to make this change?" Then ask why they chose that number and not a lower one, which draws out their reasons. Follow with "What would it take to move up one point?" Repeat with confidence instead of importance, because the two need different help.

Can life coaches use motivational interviewing questions?

Yes. The questions work in life, health, career and executive coaching because they help people talk themselves into change they already half want. Stay inside coaching scope: MI is also used in clinical treatment, and if a client surfaces addiction, a mental health crisis or a medical issue, refer them to a licensed professional.

Will Coachful build a motivational interviewing check-in for my clients?

Yes. Coachful's white-glove service is free on every plan. Ask from Create > We'll build it for you and describe the check-in, worksheet or program you want; the team builds it in your account, usually within about 24 hours, and you can edit everything afterwards.