Motivational Interviewing Practice: OARS Exercises

If you are a counseling or social work student, one practical way to practice motivational interviewing (MI) is to work with a single fictional person who has mixed feelings about a small change, and rehearse each OARS skill on their actual words: one open question, one affirmation, one reflection, one summary. Then pick one of your turns and redo it. This guide gives you an invented practice situation, four short exercises, an annotated dialogue, and a practice card. Everything here is fictional rehearsal, meant to sit alongside the MI teaching and supervision you get in your program.

What OARS is, and what it is not

OARS is an acronym for four core skills of MI. SAMHSA's TIP 35 chapter on MI lists them as asking Open questions, Affirming, Reflective listening, and Summarizing, and describes them as consistent with person-centered counseling and usable throughout your work with a client.

Four lettered skills are not the whole of MI. The same chapter describes the spirit of MI (partnership, acceptance, compassion, and evocation) and four overlapping processes: engaging, focusing, evoking, and planning. It places these within a collaborative relationship. Miller and Rollnick's 2009 paper "Ten things that motivational interviewing is not" makes a related point: its list includes that MI is not "a way of tricking people into doing what you want them to do" and not "a technique."

Two context notes before you start. First, TIP 35 was written for substance use disorder treatment, so its examples are about alcohol and drugs; the exercises below borrow its skill descriptions and apply them to an invented, low-stakes study habit. Second, the chapter (2019) cites the 2013 edition of Miller and Rollnick's book throughout. The publisher describes the fourth edition (2023) as fully rewritten, with "four tasks" of MI and new topics such as simple versus complex affirmations. If your course uses the fourth edition, use its terms where they differ from this guide.

The fictional practice situation

Jordan is an invented second-year student. Jordan brought up the topic and named the change in their own words: "starting to study earlier in the evening instead of cramming after midnight." That phrase is the target for this practice. Here is what Jordan says over the course of the conversation:

1. "I keep telling myself I'll start earlier, and then it's midnight and I'm cramming again."
2. "Honestly, late at night is when my brain finally switches on. The library feels like a waiting room."
3. "I want to stop cramming, but midnight is the only time nobody needs anything from me."
4. "I tried studying at 7 last Tuesday. I lasted forty minutes, which was more than I expected."
5. "My lab partner covered for me twice this month because I was wiped out at 9 a.m."
6. "My roommate says I just need discipline. Maybe she's right."

Work from these lines only. If you catch yourself adding facts Jordan did not give, note it as an assumption.

Exercise 1: Ask one open question

TIP 35 contrasts open questions, which invite the person to tell their story, with closed questions, which tend to draw brief answers. Write one open question in response to line 1. Keep it to one question, not three in a row.

• Closed: "Do you want to start earlier?"
• Leading: "Don't you think the library would help?"
• Possible response: "What usually happens between dinner and midnight?"
• Possible response: "What would starting earlier give you, if it worked?"

What this wording emphasizes: the first open question asks for Jordan's account of the evening. The second invites Jordan's own reasons for change, which is more directional. Both are possible; they lead the conversation to different places.

What to check next: does your question contain a suggestion inside it? "Have you tried a schedule?" is advice phrased as a question.

Exercise 2: Affirm an effort without adding a trait

TIP 35 describes affirming as expressing genuine appreciation and positive regard. It suggests emphasizing strengths, past successes, and efforts, however small; it warns not to confuse affirmation with praise; and it suggests framing affirmations with "you" rather than "I."

Respond to line 4 with an affirmation that stays with what Jordan actually did.

• Adds a trait: "You're clearly a disciplined person." (Jordan did not say this, and line 6 suggests Jordan doubts it.)
• Focuses on you: "I'm proud of you for trying."
• Possible response: "You tried a 7 o'clock start last week and stayed with it for forty minutes."
• Possible response: "You were willing to test a different time, even though nights feel more natural to you."

What to check next: can you point to the line where Jordan said each part of your affirmation? If not, cut that part.

Exercise 3: Offer a reflection

TIP 35 describes a range of reflections. A simple reflection repeats or paraphrases what the person said. A complex reflection uses different words to reach for the meaning or feeling underneath, which starts with forming a hypothesis about what the person is trying to say. Write one of each for line 3.

• Simple: "You want to stop cramming, and midnight is when nobody needs anything from you."
• Complex: "Those late nights feel like the only time that belongs to you."

The chapter also describes a double-sided reflection for ambivalence: it acknowledges sustain talk, pairs it with change talk from the same or an earlier statement, joins them with "and," and puts the change talk second.

• Double-sided: "Midnight is the only time nobody needs anything from you, and you want to stop cramming."

What this wording emphasizes: putting the change talk last gives it emphasis. That is a deliberate, directional choice in MI. Both halves come from line 3. Notice the order as a choice, and ask whether Jordan wants to add or correct anything.

For more practice naming feelings tentatively, see reflection of feeling examples. For a broader bank of open questions, see open-ended questions examples.

Exercise 4: Gather the mixed feelings in a summary

TIP 35 describes summarizing as a form of reflective listening that distills several statements and reflects them back. It lists collecting, linking, transitional, ambivalence, and recapitulation summaries, and it says to ask at the end whether you left anything out.

Write an ambivalence summary from all six lines, in three sentences or fewer, ending with a check.

Possible response: "Late at night is when your brain switches on and nobody needs anything from you. You want to stop cramming, and you've tried a 7 o'clock start once and lasted longer than you expected. What did I leave out?"

What this summary includes: both sides, in Jordan's terms, and the one attempt Jordan already made.

What it leaves out: the lab partner's help and the roommate's comment about discipline. Jordan has not explicitly connected the lab partner's help to wanting an earlier start. The closing question gives Jordan room to explain what either detail means.

What to check next: does any sentence add a plan Jordan has not chosen? "So next week you'll start at 7" would turn a summary into a decision made for Jordan. For more on building and checking summaries, see summarizing in counseling examples.

Change talk and sustain talk, relative to the target

TIP 35 defines sustain talk as statements that support not changing and change talk as statements that favor change, and calls both expressions of the two sides of ambivalence. It also notes that change talk links to a specific behavior change target. A line is only change or sustain talk relative to something; here the target is Jordan's phrase, "starting to study earlier in the evening."

Line 2 contains objections to both an earlier start and the library. If the target changed to "studying in the library," the library sentence would be sustain talk about that target; the late-night sentence alone would not settle Jordan's view of the location. Name the target explicitly and agree it with the person.

Avoid calling Jordan "resistant." TIP 35 advises viewing ambivalence not as denial or resistance but as a normal experience in the change process, and it describes resistance as "a two-way street": if discord arises, change direction or listen more carefully. Sustain talk is information about Jordan's side of the decision.

A short annotated dialogue

This invented exchange shows one slip and a repair.

Jordan: "I want to stop cramming, but midnight is the only time nobody needs anything from me."

Helper: "Have you thought about just setting an alarm for 7 and going to the library?"

Jordan: "I mean, I could. I hate the library, though."

The helper's first turn illustrates the "righting reflex" described in TIP 35: supplying a solution before exploring Jordan's view. It also adds the library to the plan. In this invented exchange, Jordan objects to that location; the line does not establish a rejection of studying earlier or a rupture in the relationship.

Helper: "I jumped to a suggestion, and you don't like the library. Late at night feels like the one stretch that's yours."

Jordan: "Yeah. Everyone else gets my daytime."

The helper drops the suggestion and reflects the part of line 3 they skipped. This keeps Jordan in charge of the topic.

Helper: "I have one idea about protecting time earlier in the evening. Would it be useful to hear it, or would you rather keep talking about what's making this hard?"

Jordan: "Sure, one."

This is a permission question. TIP 35's Elicit-Provide-Elicit sequence also asks what the person already knows or wants to know before sharing information, then asks for their response. This short exchange rehearses permission to offer an idea, not the whole information-exchange sequence. A "not right now" would mean following Jordan's choice.

Helper: "One idea is to treat the first hour after dinner as yours, with no one else's requests, before studying at all. What do you make of that?"

Jordan: "That might actually work better than forcing myself into the library."

The helper offers one option and asks for Jordan's view rather than selling it.

Redo one turn

Choose the helper's alarm-and-library line above, or a turn from your own fictional rehearsal, and redo it.

1. Write the original turn exactly as it was said.
2. Name what it did: asked, affirmed, reflected, summarized, advised, or assumed.
3. Write two alternatives, for example one simple reflection and one permission question.
4. Say each alternative aloud, as if Jordan had just spoken.
5. Write one line about what each alternative would invite Jordan to say next.

Use observations rather than counts or ratios. Who chose the next topic after your turn? Did your words add a goal, a reason, or a trait Jordan did not state? Did you ask before giving information? Is there a turn you would bring to your instructor because you are unsure how MI would handle it?

OARS practice card

Copy this table onto paper or into a document. It is a place to write alternatives.

Where SeatTime fits

SeatTime is a text-only practice tool for adult learners: graduate students and early-career practitioners. You type to one fictional AI client, then read AI-generated feedback, which can be wrong or miss what matters, so treat it as something to question rather than a verdict. It's optional practice outside your program and doesn't count toward any program, placement, or licensing requirement. Use only invented details, never information from real clients, and bring questions about MI practice to your instructor or supervisor. If you want to try it: Rehearse a conversation with a fictional AI client. For how a practice session is structured, see how SeatTime practice works.

Sources

• SAMHSA (2019), TIP 35: Enhancing Motivation for Change in Substance Use Disorder Treatment, Chapter 3: Motivational Interviewing as a Counseling Style — full chapter text; source for the OARS skills, affirming guidance, simple, complex, and double-sided reflections, summary types, change and sustain talk, target behavior, ambivalence, the righting reflex, discord, and Elicit-Provide-Elicit. Written for substance use disorder treatment; cites the 2013 edition of Miller and Rollnick throughout.
• Miller and Rollnick (2009), Ten things that motivational interviewing is not, Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy — abstract only; source for the points that MI is not a technique or a way of tricking people.
• Miller and Rollnick (2023), Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change and Grow, fourth edition (Guilford Press) — publisher page only; source for the edition, the "four tasks" wording, and the publisher's description of what is new. Chapters were not read.

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