ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how motivational work can help clients to develop more pro-social behaviours and attitudes. Motivational interviewing was first developed in work with clients with addictions and is based on the concept that change is not an event but a cyclical process. According to S. Miller and S. Rollnick the five key principles of motivational work are to: express empathy, develop discrepancy, avoid argument, roll with resistance, and support self-efficacy. According to them, the key skills of motivational work are: affirming, listening, using open questions, summarising reflectively, and supporting change talk and self-motivating statements. Motivational work is a specific area within the context of pro-social work and requires an extremely high level of sensitive communication. An underpinning belief of motivational work is that change is not a single event that might happen but a process influenced by our own desires, values and priorities at any moment in time.
