Using Motivational Interviewing to Create Change With Families | Doug Smith

In this episode of Compassion in a T-Shirt, I’m joined by Douglas Smith, Professor of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Director of the Center for Prevention Research and Development, and a long-standing member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers.Doug and I explore his 2025 book Motivational Interviewing with Families, which re-imagines how Motivational Interviewing (MI) can be applied when working with couples, parents and children, and wider family systems. Rather than treating MI as something done with one person while others observe, Doug invites us to think systemically, relationally, and compassionately about how change unfolds across conversations with families.We discuss how MI spirit shows up in family work, why reflective listening is the engine of MI, and Doug’s bold re-ordering of the core skills into ROARS (Reflections, Open questions, Affirmations, Reflective Summaries). We also unpack key innovations from the book, including family-level change talk, family-level equipoise, motivational send-offs, and the risks of the “superfluous engagement trap.”This conversation will be especially valuable for psychologists, social workers, counsellors, and health practitioners who use MI and want to deepen their work with families, as well as anyone interested in compassion-focused, evidence-based approaches to change.Timestamps:00:00 Introduction to Compassion in a T-Shirt00:13 Meet Professor Doug Smith00:32 Doug’s clinical and research background01:12 Why Motivational Interviewing with families01:49 What counts as “family work”?03:40 Why MI becomes more complex in family systems07:09 What MI with families actually looks like in practice18:13 Why reflections matter most in MI18:22 ROARS and re-ordering MI core skills21:27 Family-level reflections25:02 Navigating complexity in family systems28:17 Teaching and training MI30:45 Reflections as the engine of MI33:00 Autonomy and differing family goals34:07 Challenges in family counselling38:30 Family-level equipoise42:25 Change talk in family contexts47:26 Engaging reluctant family members49:55 Balancing engagement and planning01:00:52 Motivational send-offs and ending well01:04:06 The future of MI with familiesLinks:Motivational Interviewing with Families by Douglas C. Smith (2025)https://www.guilford.com/books/Motivational-Interviewing-with-Families/Douglas-Smith/9781462557615 Professor Doug Smith website with academic referenceshttps://socialwork.illinois.edu/directory/profile/smithdc/ If you would like to learn more about compassion focused therapy, you can find Dr Stan Steindl's book The Gifts of Compassion here: https://www.ausapress.com/p/the-gifts-of-compassion-how-to-understand-and-overcome-suffering/ Say hi on social: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drstansteindl Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/StanSteindl Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr_stan_steindl/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stan-steindl-150a5264/ Website: https://www.stansteindl.com/ YouTube Video URL: https://youtu.be/YZ0Rp_EkIdA *Affiliate Disclaimer: Note this description contains affiliate links that allow you to find the items mentioned in this video and support the channel at no cost to you. While this channel may earn minimal sums when the viewer uses the links, the viewer is in no way obligated to use these links. Thank you for your support! Video hashtags:MotivationalInterviewing, FamilyTherapy, CompassionInPractice, ChangeTalk, MITraining, FamilySystems