Everything IFS Blog

A free IFS Academy course on Motivational Interviewing (MI) for beginners, taught in plain language as the real method of Miller and Rollnick. Covers what MI is, the spirit of MI (PACE), the core skills (OARS), the four processes, change talk and sustain talk, evoking, and planning, across twelve short lessons. Ends with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work practice.

A free IFS Academy course on the closing idea of Motivational Interviewing: MI as a way of being rather than a toolkit. Covers how every MI skill expresses one underlying stance, why the spirit is what people actually feel, how to recognize good MI from the receiving end, turning MI inward toward your own ambivalence, and using MI in everyday conversations with family, friends, and colleagues. Ends with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work practice.

A free IFS Academy course on sharing information and advice the MI way, using Elicit-Provide-Elicit. Answers whether you can give advice in Motivational Interviewing, and covers asking permission first, the elicit-provide-elicit method, offering options instead of directives, and the chunk-check-chunk rhythm for longer information. Ends with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work practice.

A free IFS Academy course on responding to the hard moments in Motivational Interviewing: sustain talk and discord. Covers the reframe of resistance into sustain talk and discord, why arguing back hardens the status quo, and how to roll with sustain talk using reflection, amplified and double-sided reflections, emphasizing autonomy, reframing, and coming alongside, plus how to notice and repair discord. Ends with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work practice.

A free IFS Academy course on reflective listening, the keystone skill of Motivational Interviewing, and the summaries that grow out of it. Covers simple and complex reflections, why a reflection is a statement rather than a question, how selective reflection gently guides a conversation, and how summaries gather and link what a person has said. Ends with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work practice.

A free IFS Academy course on the planning process in Motivational Interviewing, the fourth process, where motivation turns into a real plan. Covers why planning is optional and timing-dependent, recognizing readiness, the key question that tests the water, building a plan the person owns, strengthening commitment, making a plan specific, and treating setbacks as normal. Ends with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work practice.

A free IFS Academy course on evoking change talk, the heart of Motivational Interviewing: how to draw out a person's own motivation without arguing for change. Covers evocative open questions, the importance and confidence rulers (the zero-to-ten scale), looking back and looking forward, querying extremes, exploring values and developing discrepancy, and how to reflect, ask for more, and affirm change talk so it grows. Ends with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work p

A free IFS Academy course on the language of change in Motivational Interviewing: change talk and sustain talk. Covers preparatory change talk (DARN: desire, ability, reasons, need), mobilizing change talk (CAT: commitment, activation, taking steps), why commitment language predicts change, and why sustain talk is normal rather than resistance. Ends with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work practice.

A free IFS Academy course on the four processes of Motivational Interviewing, engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning, with a deep look at the first two. Covers what it means to engage and build a working relationship, the engaging traps (assessment, expert, premature focus, and labeling), and how to focus and set a shared agenda when several concerns compete. Ends with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work practice.

A free IFS Academy course on the first two core MI skills, the O and A of OARS: open questions and affirmations. Covers open versus closed questions, how to turn closed questions into open ones, the question-stacking trap that makes people feel interrogated, and how genuine affirmation differs from flattery and praise. Ends with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work practice.

A free IFS Academy course on the spirit of Motivational Interviewing, the mindset known as PACE: partnership, acceptance, compassion, and evocation. Covers the four facets of acceptance (absolute worth, accurate empathy, autonomy support, and affirmation), why acceptance is not approval, and why the stance behind the skills matters more than the skills themselves. Ends with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work practice.

A free IFS Academy course on the two ideas at the heart of Motivational Interviewing: ambivalence (the normal state of wanting and not wanting change at the same time) and the righting reflex (the urge to step in, correct, and persuade). Explains why arguing for change triggers psychological reactance and pushes people to defend the status quo, and the reframe that a person already holds their own reasons to change. Ends with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work pract

A free IFS Academy course on Motivational Interviewing (MI): what it is, the guiding style between directing and following, its origins with Miller and Rollnick, and what MI is not, including how it differs from the Stages of Change. Covers the core definition, the move beyond confrontation, and the classic four principles (express empathy, develop discrepancy, roll with resistance, support self-efficacy). Ends with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and parts work practice.